愫君

Drawing Operations

source: sougwen

An ongoing collaboration between an artist and a robotic arm. The project investigates ideas of automation, autonomy, and collaboration as an exercise in behavioral empathy.

Sougwen Chung and her Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1, (D.O.U.G._1) explore mimicry and procedural mark-making as a simple drawing performance between a human and mechanical agent. Alongside developer Yotam Mann, the behavior of the robotic arm was designed to mimic the drawn gesture in real time through the use of a ceiling-mounted camera and computer vision. As D.O.U.G., the robotic arm, interprets the mark of the drawing collaborator, the human agent then responds in kind, resulting in a synchronous, interpretive performance.

Drawing Operations is the first stage of an ongoing study examining human and robotic interaction as an artistic collaboration. Further stages include will examine memory, autonomy, and agency.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: sougwen

Sougwen Chung explores the mark made-by-hand and the mark made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the interaction between humans and computers. Her organic, maximalist work is determined by intuitive and algorithmic processes and spans installation, sculpture, still image, drawing, and performance. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Geneva; MIT Media Lab, Cambridge; The Hospital Club, London; Mutek Festival, Mexico City; Sonar Festival, Barcelona.

She was an inaugural member of The New Museum’s NEW INC in New York. She received a BFA from Indiana University and a Masters Diploma in Interactive Art from Hyper Island in Sweden.

Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, Dazed and Confused, and The Creators Project. She has spoken internationally at conferences including OFFF, Barcelona; FITC, Tokyo; Internet Dargana, Stockholm; SXSW, Austin; The Art Directors Club, New York.

She is an artist and research affiliate at MIT’s Media Lab, in Cambridge.