Mind, Machine, Mirage

A forum at APS Museum, Shanghai, held alongside the exhibition ‘Stained Glass’ and moderated by Bi Xin, with AATB, Hu Jieming, Chen Baoyang, Bogna Konior and Wang Yanran.

AATB presented their work with industrial robots, from early pieces that turned physical space into programmable space to robots set in everyday life, clumsy and lazy, as a counterpoint to the pursuit of productivity. They discussed ‘Handshake’ and ‘Soap Opera’, shown in ‘Stained Glass’, which explore telepresence during the pandemic, and ‘Big Players’, where two robotic arms turn a skipping rope for people to jump.

The other speakers discussed the meaning of images (Hu Jieming), life inside recommendation algorithms (Chen Baoyang), whether AI will replace artists (Bogna Konior), and technology and memory after Husserl and Stiegler (Wang Yanran).