• On TechRepublic: Why Android beats iPhone

Artists view our relationship to tech Video

To play this video, you need Javascript enabled and the latest version of Flash installed. Install Flash now
Artists view our relationship to tech
Created: 06/03/2008
Video description: On a recent trip to Pittsburgh, CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi visited the Wood Street Galleries for an exhibit exploring how artists visualize our future relationship to consumer electronics. From hybridized robotic dogs to a piece called "Cellphone Disco," each work is meant to question viewers' level of intimacy with tech.

Artists view our relationship to tech Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:04 [ Background Music ]

>> Hey there! I'm Kara Tsuboi, CNETNEWS.com. Meet Copy Cat. He's a robotic hybrid between a cat and a dog. And one artist vision of what pets in the future could look like. He's also one installation at the Urban Living Art Exhibits at a gallery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These hats off the shelf robotic dogs are the work of French artist and computer scientist France Cadet. They represent her satirical view of excessive cloning and people's desires for perfection.

>> That dog there was 50 percent dog and 50 percent cow in its characteristics. You actually notice that Dolly contracts foot and mouth disease and collapses.

>> The idea behind Wood Street Galleries Urban Living Exhibition is to examine the way we will live with technology in the future.

>> It's an interesting, interactive proposition for the out world.

>> Besides the robotic dogs, another clever rift on the household pets are these chirping electronic birds. [Sound of chirping birds]

>> This is like a little pet that you can relate to and respond to and you have to tame it and to me it questions, you know, the virtual and the real world is that, how far can you relate to an inanimate object?

>> A lot of apartments can't have pets but--

>> Exactly.

>> This is a pet. It moves--

>> You don't need to go out and water them.

>> This next robot was one of my favorites.

>> The robot measures the amount of CO2 in the room and there's a detector up here and depending on the number of people in the room, the robot moves along here and creates a graph of the amount of CO2 in the room.

>> Or you can cheat it and blow directly into the sensor and then watch the 'bot calculate the CO2.

>> You see it has deep lungs.

>> Some are lungs.

>> As part of the Urban Living Exhibit, there's this installation of cellphone disco that interacts with your phone's GSA. When you wave your phone over the 4500 LEDs, they light up.

>> You can actually draw with your cell phone.

>> The least interactive display but quite possibly the most mesmerizing with this post modern spin on a fish tank called roots.

>> When I put electricity through the liquid and roots and then depending on how the electricity is flowing, the crystal is forming and then there's animation software in the back and it checks how the crystal is forming [laughter].

>> I'm Kara Tsuboi, CNETNEWS.com. ^M00:02:22 [ Music ]

Related Videos

We heart robots

"Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon" is the name of a new exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art. CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi pays a visit to the California museum to learn how and why artists have used robots to mirror society and why they're beloved the world over.

Art with Flight Patterns

On a recent visit to the Gray Area Beacon, an art gallery in San Francisco, CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi caught up with visual artist Aaron Koblin. His "Flight Patterns" has become a worldwide phenomenon online.

A snake-inspired robot

On a recent visit to Pittsburgh, Penn., CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi dropped by professor Howie Choset's Robotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University to see his latest creation, the Snakebot.

Roving robots explore moon, desert

Whether it's exploring the moon's craters or the inhospitable Chilean desert, robots are aiding in the research work that humans wouldn't ordinarily be able to do. At a recent visit to Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh, CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi gets up close and personal with the Scarab, Zoe, and an entry into the Lunar X Prize Challenge.

Intel Research Day

At Intel's Research Day, more than 70 booths filled up the exhibition hall at Mountain View's Computer History Museum. CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi profiles some of her favorites, including the Mood Phone and robotic fingers.

Pittsburgh: Cleaning and greening its image

Pittsburgh is trying to shed its image of a gritty, grimy steel town one building at a time. Its convention center is one of the most environmentally friendly buildings of its size in the entire country. CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi visits the Steel City and takes a tour of the space that boasts an organic garden, its own water reclamation plant, and a smart cooling system. The building was awarded gold-level certification on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ratings scale set up by the U.S. Green Building Council.

2nd Skin

At San Francisco's Exploratorium, artists and designers show off the fashion of the future. From a smoke-sensitive skirt to a vest that doubles as a video game controller, CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi captures the fun and the oddities of sartorial tech.

Daily Debrief: The shrinking CES

Those of us trekking to Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January of 2009 will have a smaller show floor to explore. On this Daily Debrief, CNET's Kara Tsuboi and Erica Ogg discuss why companies are scaling down their exhibit space and if we can expect the same hoopla as in years past.

Gecko-inspired robot goes vertical

The climbing robot from Stanford University doesn't have sticky feet at all. Instead, Stickybot relies on gecko-inspired technology to scale walls. CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi visits with the little creature and learns that one day this tech may also enable us to climb like Spider-Man...err, Gecko-Man.

Saving money with solar tech

It's not cheap to power a home these days. Could solar-energy tech be the solution? At the Intersolar North America exhibition in San Francisco, CNET's Kara Tsuboi finds a few products that could help bring sunshine to your wallet.