Re/Search Publications Counter Cultural Hour: featuring Monochrom and Roboexotica September 24, 2008

Our monthly Counter Cultural Hour by RE/Search Publications will feature a visit by members of the Austrian group Monochrom, known for its left-wing political work/civil society work.
Monochrom is an international art-technology-philosophy group, founded in 1993. Its offices are located at Museumsquartier/Vienna (at 'QDK').The group works with different media and art formats and publishes the German book and zine/magazine series Monochrom. Other Monochrom Bay Area events with have been Arse Elektronika, a series of conferences about sex and technology featuring speakers such as Mark Dery, Violet Blue and Eon McKai. and Maker Faire 2007.

Our screening will feature documentation from Roboexotica, an annual festival where scientists, researchers, computer geeks and artists from all over the world build cocktail robots and discuss technological innovation, futurology and science fiction. Roboexotica is also described as an ironic attempt to criticize techno-triumphalism and to dissect technological hypes. 2002 Monochrom teamed up with Shifz in the organization of the events.

In our screening, various members of Monochrom and other international robot-makers demonstrate their cocktail robotic-oriented theme installations, machines, and philosophies behind their creativity. Included are 'bots made by local artists: Kal Spelletich and Simone Davalos. Over a dozen of the cocktail-making and -serving robots are highlighted, including a drunken-driving simulation, a "robot" that lights as well as smokes your cigarette, and various catapults for getting your maraschino cherry into your drink, or your cigarette into your mouth. Theory of robot-making and artificial intelligence are discussed by Peter Asara, Thomas Ballhausen, Johannes Grenzfurthner and others.

Roboexotica has been featured on Slashdot, Wired News, Reuters, CNN and blogs like Boing Boing and New Scientist.

Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/millionfishes