Ken Rinaldo: Two Decades of Biological and Robotic Art

By A/P Kenneth Rinaldo (Director, Art & Technology Programme, Ohio State
University)


USP Seminar

Date: August 19, Monday
Time: 3 - 5 pm
Venue: Cyberarts Studio, Level 5, Old ADM Block, University Scholars Programme,
NUS.


Abstract:

Living systems, through adaptive behaviour and evolution, naturally seek
symbiotic relationships with their environment, which is increasingly
technologically mediated. Rinaldo will discuss and illustrate his hypothesis
that technological systems - such as artificial life and genetic algorithms -
learn and recapitulate the evolved wisdom of living systems, and how the
relationship between art, biology and technology is therefore inevitably
symbiotic.


Bio of the Speaker:

Ken Rinaldo is a new media artist and theorist who creates interactive
installations that blur the boundaries between the organic and inorganic. He
believes it is imperative that technological systems acknowledge and model the
evolved wisdom of natural living systems, so they will inherently fuse to
permit an interdependent earth. For over two decades Rinaldo has been working
at the intersection of art and biology, including interactive robotics,
biological art, artificial life, interspecies communication, rapid prototyping
and digital imaging. His works have been commissioned and widely exhibited
internationally at museums, galleries and events, including

Transmediale, Berlin; Ars Electronica, Austria; The Kiasma Museum, Finland; The
Australian Center for Photography, Sydney; Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art,
USA; and the Dutch Electronica Arts Festival, The

Netherlands. His work has been reviewed and edited in a diverse range of
publications and books, including ArtByte NY, Art Press Paris, Leonardo, and
Information Arts by Steve Wilson, MIT Press. He has curated exhibitions
specialising in Art and Technology, and has received several grants and awards,
including first prize for AVIDA 3.0, 2001, an international competition on
Artificial Life. Rinaldo currently Directs and teaches robotics in the Art and
Technology program at The Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio, USA.

Melinda Klayman
Cyberarts & Cyberculture Research Initiative
University Scholars Programme
National University of Singapore
10 Kent Ridge Crescent
Singapore 119260
Tel (65) 6874 4062
Fax (65) 6773 1012