Christian Faubel at FBAUP

Faubel
Besides performing at this year’s Natal dos Experimentais, Christian Faubel will also present a lecture at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. In this Faubel will present an overview of his work, including robotic installations, participatory workshops and live performances. Central to his work is the use of robots as philosophical toys that convey scientific insight,while providing amusement and entertainment.

Christian Faubel is an interdisciplinary researcher and artist. He is currently working at the laboratory for experimental computer science within the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He holds a PhD in electrical engineering and has completed research on autonomous systems at the Institute for Neural Computation from 2002–2012.In 2002 he founded derstrudela collective for the mediation of a relaxed approach to electronics robotics. Since 2002 he has taught more than 50 workshops in building simple analog robots at international venues and festivals. Together with the artists Tina Tonagel and Ralf Schreiber he is also part of the overhead projector band Ray Vibration.

They use overhead projectors, self build-instrumentsand analog robots for creating audiovisual performances. In his work he is interested in what enables autonomous behavior and how complex autonomous behavior may result from the interaction of very simple units and from the dynamics of interaction between such units. In his artworks and performances he tries to convey insights about theoretical concepts such as emergence or embodiment along an aesthetic dimension. He considers his artworks, workshops and performancesto be in the tradition of philosophical toys as they combine the mediation of scientific concepts with pleasure and amusement.

It’s next Thursday, December 10 at 17h. Entrance is free!