The “Emergence of Consciousness” (2010) was a groundbreaking performance artwork using sensory and movement deprivation (e.g. blindfolds, physical restraints etc) and augmentation to reflect physical developments in the human body (from infancy to old age). It created an embodied representation of how experience might be constructed, through physical interaction with the environment and other performers, and the emergence of shared beliefs. By taking on the role of a robotic agent the artist began to understand her own mind in new ways.
The project draws together rigorous practice-based artistic methodologies and scientific research to attempt to investigate the notion of conscious experience from a philosophical point of view, inspired by perspectives of embodiment and enaction (Varela, Thomson and Rosch, 1992) and situatedness (Brooks, 1991) in evolutionary robotics and neural network learning systems.
In her performance the artist attempted to feel what it is like to be a robot through a physical exploration the philosophical foundations of contemporary artificial life research, taking inspiration from Thomas Nagel’s 1974 paper “What is it like to be a bat?” Dumitriu reduced her sensory input as closely as she could to that of the robot, making explicit Francisco Varela’s notion of mindfulness in a robot, where the robot is completely focussed on the feedback from its single ultrasound sensor. The artist then ‘competed’ against a robot to find the centre of the room.
Her body was taped up, earplugs, a blindfold, bondage tape and even lidocaine was used to limit her movement and ability to interact. As suggested by project advisor Inman Harvey, an artificial life expert from the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at the University of Sussex where Dumitriu was artist in residence from 2005-2011 she used just a walking stick to find her way around.
Dumitriu developed, co-built and programmed ‘Mary’ the robot which she used in the performance (named after the scientist described in Frank Jackson’s famous paper entitled “Epiphenomenal Qualia” (1982), known as ‘the knowledge argument’). She worked on the piece at Build Brighton makerspace where she was a founder member, with the support of other hardware hackers.
‘Mary’ used a control system which had been evolved using a genetic algorithm by Harvey specifically to find the centre of a room, and did so by spiralling in on the centre using the feedback from its ultrasound sensor hitting the wall. However, the artist was limited to her learned ‘human’ way of doing it. The audience stepped aside as Dumitriu staggered and lunged around the space counting her steps and as the robot performed its intricate spiralling. This gave audiences an explicit and visceral sense of the vast difference between human intelligence and the field of machine intelligence.
Movement sensors were used to investigate the relationship of movement to experience as well as EEG sensors, Body language was also investigated using motion sensing technology, including physically acting out various experiences such as boredom. She performed a series of movements related to emotional expressions such as slouching to express boredom. This fed into future research with HARR1: My Robot Companion and Cyberspecies Proximity.
The project was funded by Arts Council England and supported by The Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at The University of Sussex and Lighthouse. It was also awarded a Cultural Olympiad London 2012 Inspire Mark.
Exhibitions and Performances
“The Emergence of Consciousness Project: Investigating machine consciousness though performance art” took place on 25th July 2010 at Lighthouse, Brighton, UK as part of the London 2012 Open Weekend.
The robot, artefacts of the performance and photographic documentation of “The Emergence of Consciousness” was shown in “Our Friends Electric” at QUAD Derby, UK from 1st July – 10th September 2017.
The robot, props, and photographic documentation of “The Emergence of Consciousness” was shown as part of “Intelligent Machinery” at Ugly Duck London, UK from 27th – 29th September 2019.
Collaborators
“Emergence of Consciousness” was a collaboration between artist Anna Dumitriu and scientists at the The Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at The University of Sussex where she was artist in residence at the time. It was originally performed by Anna Dumitriu at Lighthouse in Brighton in July 2010, assisted by Luke Robert Mason, with projections by Alex May.
Collections
Photos of the Emergence of Consciousness performance were acquired for the CAS50 Collection of Computer Arts Archive of the Computer Arts Society, UK, in 2019. The robot and other props and images remain in the collection of the artist.
Workshops
Dumitriu has run a number of workshops and presentations for students of all ages on this subject from 5 year olds at a school in Brighton UK to Horizon Scanning MA students at Nottingham Trent University, and professional artists, teachers, as well as giving lectures on the project around the world including Digital Arts Week 2010 in Xi’an China for art students and ISEA 2011 Conference in Istanbul, Turkey.
