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Handshake: A Conversation between Roddy Schrock and AATB, 2020
Responding to the new reality of “social distancing” due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and reflecting on the potential to overcome physical distance through technology, the Swiss design duo AATB (Andrea Anner and Thibault Brevet) have developed Handshake, an interactive robotic installation that invites participants into a moment of connection and digital intimacy.
We are celebrating the launch of this virtual interactive robotic installation Handshake with an online conversation between the designers AATB and NY-based design critic and curator Roddy Schrock from Eyebeam.
This conversation will focus on the development of AATB’s work at the intersection of design and robotics and feature a conversation about the future of automation and robotics. We will also reflect on the role that design and designers can play in the future of automation and robotics. AATB will also include a brief demo of the virtual installation, which was accessible to the public from 28 May – 30 June 2020.
About the exhibition:
Handshake is a virtual, interactive robotic installation that includes a platform on which strangers can interact with each other, virtually but also physically, no matter where they are connecting from. Come shake hands with us!.
This exhibition will be accompanied by a series of conversations that explore some of the questions raised by AATB and create an active exchange with robotics experts from Switzerland and around the globe.
Roddy Schrock is a curator and arts executive. Since 2015, Schrock has been the Executive Director of Eyebeam in New York City, an institution dedicated to supporting art that engages technology. There, he manages the functional capacities of the organization’s direct artist support and guides its focus on supporting work that aims to realign societal relationships to emergent technologies.
He has been an active practitioner in digital and sound art, living and working on three continents. He received an MFA from Mills College and certificate in non-profit management at Harvard University. His essays have been published by MIT Press, and he writes regularly for online publications, such as Hyperallergic and Huffington Post. He has previously written for New Music Box, Fucking Good Art, and e/i Magazine. As a sound artist, Schrock has been commissioned by Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, The Netherlands America Foundation, and Ostrava New Music Days, among others.
He currently teaches in the Curatorial Practice MA Program at the School of Visual Arts and has taught at the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM), California College of the Arts, and New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. He sits on the Netherlands America Foundation Cultural Committee and is a founding board member of Art+Feminism.
Partners
Handshake: An Interactive Robotic Installation, was initiated by swissnex Boston and AATB, in close collaboration with the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, and swissnex San Francisco. This project and its global reach were made possible by the generous support of the global swissnex network, Présence Suisse, and Pro Helvetia.