Recalibrating (2021)
An emergency response drone scours the landscape looking for human life in a world where people are mysteriously absent. Announcements from the drone’s megaphone echo across the terrain as its onboard artificial intelligence system grapples with a world that was unimagined by its programmers. Unable to accomplish its encoded objective, the drone attempts alternative methods for achieving its goal. Extrapolating new research in Machine Learning, this work of speculative fiction explores notions of artificial curiosity and machine self-actualization through the lens of non-human consciousness, languages of com- munication and the poetry of interfaces.
The entire soundtrack for this piece is from the drones attached megaphone. Emergency response alarm sounds and public service announcements begin to morph and reconfigure as the drone experiments with its built-in sound resources as it tries to locate humans.
In this film we see the drone ‘think’ through the poetic language that emerges from its heads-up display readouts. The piece uses the interface text to express the evolving consciousness of the drone and its onboard artificial curiosity.
Video excerpt of Recalibrating
Recalibrating was commissioned by Rhizome, the Internet Art affiliate of the New Museum and was created with support from Nokia Bell Labs. During the fall of 2019 and 2020 Andrew worked with engineers at Nokia Bell Labs to craft a drone that could carry a large speaker to play the soundtrack and develop the motion analysis visualizations.
The Nokia Bell Labs engineers who worked on this project include:
Canberk Gurel (Nokia Bell Labs) - Cinematographer and Drone Pilot
Michael Baldwin (Nokia Bell Labs) - Drone Technical Assistance
Ethan Edwards & Larry O'Gorman (Nokia Bell Labs) - Motian Analysis
Danielle Mcphatter (Nokia Bell Labs) - Creative Technologist
Prasanth Ananth & Paul Wilford (Nokia Bell Labs) - Technical Consultants
A public program on March 17th, 2021, hosted by The New Museum featured a conversation be- tween Zachary Kaplan, the Executive Director of Rhizome and artists participating in the Further Experiments in Art & Technology exhibition.
The full version of the film is available on the New Museum’s website: First Look: New Art Online, Further Experiments in Art & Technology
A six-channel audio version version of Recalibrating is on view from May 1st - August 15th, 2021 in an exhibition entitled The Workings of Media Art and Artists by Harvestworks on Governors Island in New York City. The soundtrack is heard entirely overhead, through a matrix of ceiling speakers. The flight path and proximity of the drone is felt across the body as it dynamically moves above the listeners.
Additional Production Credits for the piece:
Ricardo Bracho, Andrew Demirjian, Dahlia Elsayed - Video Analytics Text
Andrew Lund, Andrew Demirjian - Story
Nicolas Vega - Motion Graphics, Color Grading
Barry Weisblat - Sound Recordist
Jon Cohrs - Audio Mix
Neil O'Brien - Produciton Assistance
Sofian Audry - AI Consultant