XLab studies design-related concerns in robotics. As a lab for practice-orientated research, we examine the social, economic, and design-related potential of the technologies. We position art and design as a mediating instance and integrative level of knowledge between the technical sciences and the humanities.

We encourage experimental exploration and eagerly welcome critical examination of the socio-technological, ethical, and ecological aspects of the use of artificial intelligence and robotics. Here, future technology is both a tool and a subject of research.

Through joint workshops, individual research projects, and public events, XLab provides a space in which students and associated researchers can test their ideas through development, design, and critical scrutiny. Specific projects are realised in cooperation with external partners and will be communicated beyond BURG range.

Co-Creation

As an overarching theme of XLab, we are exploring the uses of artificial intelligence and robotics as co-creation tools instead of autonomous technologies. Through research prototypes and applied projects we investigate practical uses, potentials, and implications. In our podcast “Towards Co-Creation” we talk to makers, artists, and researchers who use AI and robotics in their creative practices. How do these technologies change the creative process? What will co-creation look like in the future? And how can we contribute to a realistic and critical perspective that does not shy away from the technologies’ deficits, limitations, and impacts on society.

AI Myths and Monstrosities

Alexa Steinbrück is researching how we think and talk about AI as a society. Which misunderstandings result? What myths have become embedded in the general discourse? In the public debate over AI, the levels of meaning of fiction (strong AI) and the actual state of research (narrow AI) are often confused. This is particularly problematic when people are speaking of the risks involved with AI. Alexa Steinbrück sheds light on how we can separate the two levels of meaning again.

Reset vs Restart

In order to manifest digital designs and models in the physical world, the methods and tools of digital manufacturing are integral components of design. Following the “file-to-factory” principle, the design process has had to orientate itself to the requirements of manufacturing. On the one hand, this limits design practice and on the other hand, it eliminates our option to intervene in production. Once started, a process can only be halted and restarted but not changed.

Simon Maris’s project aims to supplement existing software controls with real-time-based systems. The approach promises greater flexibility and new spaces for design. Simon Maris is first examining three control mechanisms and demonstrating them based on prototypical designs as examples of haptic control, sensor-based control, and control via neural networks.

XLab is mainly based on its associates’ expertise in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics. At BURG, they apply their know-how in an integrative approach that picks up on each student’s fund of knowledge and taps the potential in both fields. A space for students is created in which they can experiment with software and machines in the context of artistic and design-related processes.

It includes an overview of specific software and software libraries for various sub-areas of AI such as speech and image recognition or image and text generation. Relevant tools and methods are also available to enable the programming of interactive real-time systems, curation of datasets, generative design, and digital fabrication. Through a collaboration with the digital workshop at BURG, XLab is able to work with state-of-the-art technical equipment such as the robot arms UR5 and UR10.

In Towards Co-Creation stellen Alexa Steinbrück und Simon Maris vom XLab kooperative Gestaltungsprozesse von Mensch und Maschine ins Zentrum ihrer Gespräche. In den Folgen treffen sie Macher*innen, Künstler*innen und Wissenschaftler*innen, die Künstliche Intelligenz und Robotik in unterschiedlichen Bereichen verwenden. Towards Co-Creation dokumentiert die Diskurse im XLab und spürt Fragestellungen in den Gesprächen nach.

Dabei geht es um die Erforschung von KI und Robotik nicht als autonome Technologien, sondern als Werkzeuge der kreativen Kooperation. Wie verändern diese Technologien den kreativen Prozess? Wie wird Co-Creation in der Zukunft aussehen? Und wie können wir zu einer realistischen und kritischen Perspektive beitragen, die sich nicht scheut, nach den Defiziten, Grenzen und Auswirkungen der Technologien auf die Gesellschaft zu fragen.

Der Podcast steht kostenlos auf den gängigen Portalen zur Verfügung oder hier auf dieser Seite.