home - Name of Artist & Work: Ryan Gander, The Storyteller: The sense that you are a part of a flow of a thing
- Date: 2025
- Technology Incorporated: Audio-synchronized animatronics.
- How Technology is Used: The technology animates a lifelike harvest mouse that physically emerges from a small hole in the gallery wall. It uses programmed motors to perfectly sync the physical mouth and body movements of the mouse to a pre-recorded audio track featuring the voice of the artist's daughter delivering a philosophical monologue.
- What Materials it is Made of: Miniature servo motors, a microcontroller (such as an Arduino), custom copper wiring, artificial mouse fur, a 3D-printed resin or plastic internal skeletal armature, silicone detailing (for the paws and snout), a hidden miniature speaker system, and the gallery drywall itself.
- How it Works / What is Invisible: A logic board triggers the audio file to play while simultaneously sending timed electrical signals to the servos inside the mouse, creating precise physical twitches. What is invisible: The entirety of the power supply, wiring, microprocessors, and the speaker system are hidden completely behind the gallery's drywall. The computational code translating the audio file into motorized movement remains unseen, preserving the illusion of a sentient animal.
- Why I Picked This: It creates a fascinating juxtaposition between cold, highly advanced mechanical engineering and the humble, organic fragility of a tiny field mouse. It uses robotics not to show off scale, but to create an intimate, philosophical experience.
- Name of Artist & Work: Anicka Yi, Aerobes (part of her In Love With The World continuum)
- Date: 2021–2026
- Technology Incorporated: Autonomous drone robotics, helium buoyancy, and thermal/spatial sensors.
- How Technology is Used: Yi uses aerospace and drone technology to create autonomous, floating machines ("aerobes") that navigate the airspace of the gallery. Instead of being remote-controlled, they are programmed with a unique AI flight algorithm that allows them to behave like a living, reactive ecosystem, responding to the movement and body heat of the visitors below.
- What Materials it is Made of: Helium gas, ultra-lightweight carbon fiber for the internal skeletal rings, semi-transparent synthetic polymer skins (such as Mylar and polyurethane), miniature motorized drone rotors, internal battery packs, and algorithmic logic boards.
- How it Works / What is Invisible: The aerobes achieve neutral buoyancy using helium, while the small rotors provide propulsion. Onboard sensors continuously scan the environment to detect physical obstacles and thermal bodies. What is invisible: The AI flight algorithms that dictate their individual and "flocking" behaviors are entirely unseen. Furthermore, Yi often pairs these works with invisible, engineered "scentscapes" pumped into the gallery air, meaning the chemical technology manipulating the atmosphere of the room is completely invisible to the eye but highly present to the nose.
- Why I Picked This: It radically redefines what a robot can be. Instead of being made of cold, heavy metal, these machines are soft, vulnerable, and mimic marine life like jellyfish or giant fungi. It makes the future of robotics feel poetic and biological rather than industrial.