ART INSTALLATIONS::   1 | 2 | 3

BR Formis: Perfect Bureaucrat

"Recently, I had a disturbing conversation with an employee of Bell Canada. About three questions into her inquiry, I realized the pattern of questioning fit responses to a computer program. At the end of the call, she did not even hear my "No" for she had inserted a "Yes"."

I wrote that sentence in 1986. Today, it would not occur to me to be disturbed by the call. I accept I may be talking to a computer or at the very least to a person reading from an online template.

However, the central question that led to the creation of this piece remains ... Have our machines, programmed to meet ever powerful business requirements, begun to program us?

The hybrid, robots cross the machine/human interface. They emulate human behaviour, but they also evoke our fascination and as I found an emotional attachment.

BR Formis explores this paradox. This robot ant is a performer. His system configuration is modelled on the behaviour of people working in a bureaucracy of the future.

He sits behind a desk in this office. He is unable to leave his office, he works 24/7 with three voice responsive monitors ... on one he keeps order by deleting the red blocks as they appear on the screen, leaving green and blue blocks; on the second he watches the behaviour of others via a surveillance camera. And from time to time, he takes a "coffee break" by watching TV on the third.

When visitors come close to the installation, they interrupt an infrared screen. The ant stops work, turns his head to face them, and asks if they would like to join him for a coffee break. He then turns on his TV monitor and comments on the pre-taped program clips. He is fond of cartoons and soaps.

After this initial piece was shown, I followed the bureaucratic model and created an empire for him. He was joined by two other ants (one responsible for green blocks and the other for blue), each with their own office.

The second piece consisted of three ants, three offices, three surveillance cameras, and twelve monitors in total (four per office). In effect, the ants cancel out each others work and spend a lot of time in online meetings. The expanded piece was shown for a year in the Computer Hall at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

This installation has been shown ... in France:: Paris at the Centre Georges Pompidou; Villeneuve lez Avignon at La Chartreuse; Caën at the Grand Théâtre; in Canada:: Ottawa at the Canada Museum of Science and Technology; Toronto at ASpace.

ART INSTALLATIONS::   1 | 2 | 3

© Maggie Dorning. All rights reserved.