BALTAN goes NATLAB – A view on looking

On Friday, April 24, 2009 BALTAN Laboratories invites you to attend the second in the BALTAN goes NATLAB series of presentations at the former Philips NatLab in Eindhoven in the context of BALTAN’s Poème Numérique research programme. Curated and moderated by artist Geert Mul, the focus of this session will be on the philosophy of perception and how artificial intelligence and robotics can lead to a deeper understanding of human behaviour itself. 

Thom Warmerdam from Philips Applied Technologies will give a presentation of the artificial eye that he is developing and will shed a light on how the brain constructs an image. Amsterdam-based researcher, artist and teacher Willem van Weelden will take a philosophical approach to the notion of how we culturally construct our sensorial impressions of the world. And designer Christien Meindertsma will preview her upcoming project Makers & Spectators, a looking-laboratory set up at MU in Eindhoven from May 1 to June 14, 2009.

After the presentations, BALTAN also invites you to raise a glass with us to celebrate the opening of Telcosystems’ installation 12_Series that same evening at Woodstreet Galleries in Pittsburgh, USA.12_Series is a generative multichannel computer installation by Telcosystems that has been developed under the umbrella of BALTAN’s Poème Numérique research programme. Together with Martijn van Boven, Telcosystems also curated the Machine Improvisations exhibition, running next to 12_Series at Woodstreet Galleries until June 20, 2009.

Geert Mul, MATCH OF THE DAY

POEME NUMERIQUE

BALTAN goes NATLAB is a monthly series devoted to presenting and contributing to BALTAN Laboratories’ research program Poème Numérique. Research projects undertaken in 2009  and 2010 by Telcosystems, Geert Mul and Maurer United Architects are elaborated under this umbrella, which is a contemporary investigation of interdisciplinary collaboration and integration of media. Poème Numérique is a research trajectory that represents a common ground for the work, ideas and collaboration of Telcosystems, Mul and MUA and that investigates the power of these different media and perspectives coming together in physical space. It will culminate in a presentation of a larger utopian vision at the end of the pilot phase of BALTAN in 2010. This innovative research is inspired by the renowned Poème Electronique, the Philips pavilion from the world exhibition in Brussels in 1958. The third evening of the BALTAN goes NATLAB series takes place on May 29, 2009, curated by Telcosystems with a focus on spatialisation. 

THOM WARMERDAM

Thom Warmerdam received the M.Sc. degree in Physics from the Delft University of Technology, in 1985. His graduation work, and his professional life since has been on various topics of Robotics. His first job was as a system integrator and architect in the robotics group of  Philips’ research laboratories in Briarcliff. In 1990 he accepted a job at the Philips Centre for Industrial Technology in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In that organization he has filled various positions, including successfully setting up a mechatronics laboratory in the USA. In 1999 he founded the Philips Robocup organization. This organization has been European champion twice and has obtained a 3^rd place on the world championship in 2005. Since 2002 he has been responsible for the robotics competence of Philips Applied Technologies.

WILLEM VAN WEELDEN

Willem van Weelden is a Dutch researcher, publicist and teacher of media-theory and interaction design. He started his career with a study on social philosophy which he did not complete (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen). From the early 1980s until 1990 he worked as visual artist, then shifted to theory, writing and cultural engineering. In the 1990s van Weelden was involved in groundbreaking projects dedicated to public access on the Internet, e.g. De Digitale Stad (DDS, 1994). He currently combines writing with teaching at various academies, such as the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam (NL) and the Sint-Lukas Academy, Brussels (BE).

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