Airy, 2024
Multi-Agent Installation (Robotic Arm, Gossamer)
As industrial robots increasingly enter shared human spaces, their internal decision-making often remains an opaque "black box." Airy challenges this opacity by staging a public competition between two reinforcement-learning agents, using the shared medium of a silk bedsheet to make their intentions visible.
The setup is deceptively simple: two robotic arms face one another, holding opposite ends of a translucent veil. Their goal is to lift the sheet as high as possible. However, the feedback loop is strictly visual. A generative forest environment is projected onto the silk. As the fabric rises, the perspective climbs from the mossy forest floor, through the canopy, to the open sky. Height equals success, turning a complex optimization problem into a clear visual metric.
Crucially, the installation visualizes the relationship between the two agents. The system analyzes the timing and phase of the robots’ movements to generate "weather." Harmonious, in-step collaboration results in tranquil sunlight; strategic divergence or competitive "whiplash" triggers rain, mist, and lightning. Through these sensory metaphors—height and weather—Airy converts abstract control data into an emotional narrative, allowing the audience to feel the harmony or conflict of the machines before they even see the result.
