Rational and Irrational Numbers
Image Riccardo Giacconi
Rational and Irrational Numbers
Rational and Irrational Numbers is a project on the concept of animation. The project aims to connect the archaic tradition of puppetry to the latest technological developments in robotics and artificial intelligence, at the same time addressing puppets to be an ancient prefiguration of the theory of the “uncanny valley”, according to which the more an anthropomorphic automaton resembles a human being, the more monstrous its imperfections appear.
Rational and Irrational Numbers consists in the production of a film and in a collaboration between the Colla Company and the EPFL RRL, whose outcome’s nature will be identified during the development of the residency.
- Envisioned collaborations: EPFL Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL) and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (LIA), among others.
Animal
Dates of the exhibition:
13-29.1.2023
EPFL Pavilions – Pavilion A
Riccardo Giacconi’s Animal is the result of intensive research around artistic and scientific questions at the boundary between human and machine, carried out in EPFL’s robotics laboratories.
Part of Giacconi’s project Rational and Irrational Numbers, the video explores the concept of animation. Creating a parallel between the “uncanny valley” (Masahiro Mori, 1970) of the ancient tradition of puppetry and recent technological developments in robotics and artificial intelligence, Animal is inspired by a series of conversations with scientists and researchers. Footage from the EPFL alternates with images from the Carlo Colla & Figli Marionette Company in Milan and other sources from the artist’s archive.
The work enables a leap of faith, a suspension of disbelief, as it reconciles the hyper-contemporary and the ancient in an enigmatic sequence, generating in the resonance and the distance between the two worlds a broader reflection on technology and its scientific and philosophical implications.
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
Photo: Yumo Wu
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
Photo: Yumo Wu
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
Photo: Yumo Wu
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
Photo: Yumo Wu
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
Photo: Yumo Wu
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
Photo: Yumo Wu
Exhibition/project credits
Riccardo Giacconi, Animal, 2023
Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL – CDH Artist in Residence Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
Curator & Head of Pogram: Giulia Bini
Graphic design and Identity: Jakob Kirch (Lamm & Kirch)
In collaboration with:
EPFL Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL)
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (LIA)
Riccardo Giacconi
Riccardo Giacconi (IT) is an artist and documentarian based in Boston. His practice investigates narrative forms through an evidential paradigm, drawing from micro-factual details and clues. His work has been exhibited in various institutions, such as Grazer Kunstverein (Graz), ar/ge kunst (Bolzano), MAC (Belfast), WUK Kunsthalle Exnergasse (Vienna), FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (Reims), tranzitdisplay (Prague), and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin). He has presented his films at several festivals, including the New York Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Visions du Réel (Nyon), and FID Marseille. He cofounded the collective listening festival Helicotrema and the audio storytelling studio Botafuego. He is professor of practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston.