2023 November-December will be the South African premiere of this program a NAO 6 humanoid robot will be hosted for two months. During this time, the Goethe-Institut offers 4 participants an opportunity to work closely with the NAO.
Focusing on a trans-hemispheric approach in the global south and African locality in accelerating Diversity In AI to counter AI Bias and accelerate knowledge production, the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg in collaboration with the Institute for Intelligence Systems (IIS) (University of Johannesburg), Robots, Autonomous Intelligence and Learning Lab (RAIL Lab) (University of Witwatersrand), Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation (University of Stellenbosch) and TMG Makerspace are pleased to announce the South African edition of the ongoing NAO Robot In Residence African roving residency project, an open call for artist residency applications from engineers, data and computer scientists, coders, artists, scholars, cultural practitioners based in South Africa.
NAO 6 is now the sixth generation of the interactive humanoid robot NAO, developed by the Japanese French company SoftBank Robotics. It is in use worldwide and serves primarily as a research object for educational institutions. Its 25 degrees of movement make communication with NAO seem particularly natural. The robot has various sensors as well as modules for speech, object and face recognition and speaks several languages. Since 2020 two of these NAO robots have traveled to various Goethe-Instituts, in Europe and Africa. On-site, the robots were supervised and further programmed by coders and artists, taking local issues and circumstances into account.
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Robots in Residence aims to examine and illustrate the relationship between humans and machines with a focus on communication in various cultural contexts. During each residency, the robots learn new skills and carry their newly acquired knowledge and skills further afield, picking up increased aspects that, taken together, can capture and spark a multifaceted debate on artificial intelligence as part of the Diversity in AI conversation.
To counteract stereotypical and received views on and about Africa – as physical geography open to all manner of exploitative extraction this project will have a strong focus on innovation, inquiry and approaches from an African perspective.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is not neutral. The way robots are built, trained, and used has a major impact on our everyday lives and societies. How a robot interacts with people of different origins, cultures, genders, sexual orientation depends on who built the system and what training data was used for programming. With the consequences and problems of a lack of diversity, the project advocates for a critical reflection of the design processes and creates examples for a diverse vision of the future with and through AI.
Benefits
An opportunity to work closely with the robot.
18 000 ZAR stipend for each of the 4 team members (this covers all their costs, stay etc during project)
Access to a residency/working space at TMG Makerspace and partners.
Shared community event space
Local creative community/network
Technical support
Workshops and skill development opportunities
Connections to academic and creative networks through the project partners
Outcomes and Expecations
As part of a research-creation project, participants will develop an interactive and artistic program/project presentation for and with the NAO that illustrates their questions and/or reasonings about human-machine interactions. The media art projects/performances should reflect their local context and focus on communication.
Projects/works in progress will be presented to the public in a public presentation.
Lead one skill-sharing workshop open to students / the public (with the support of the Goethe-Institut and partners).
Communicate progress updates to the Goethe-Institut.
Be available for an artist panel and/or workshop hosted in collaboration with The People Speak which are a group of international artists, cultural producers, science communicators and activists.
Provide project documentation (audio, video, written)
Process
Die ausgewählten Teilnehmer werden ein Team bilden, um gemeinsam mit dem NAO an einem Konzept/Vorschlag zu arbeiten (Zeitplan wird noch bekannt gegeben). Am Ende dieses Zeitraums wird eine öffentliche Präsentation der Arbeit auf der Southern African Conference for Artificial Intelligence Research (SACAIR) und an anderen Orten stattfinden.
Applications will be assessed based upon the following criteria:
Outlines an innovative approach to the project goals.
Demonstrates depth of thought around socio-philosophical questions of human-machine connection, as well as innovative use of the NAO and its features/skills.
Relevance to the program focus areas (listed above) and values of cultural exchange.
Feasibility given time and budget constraints.
Open to all disciplines but artists with a special interest in sound and technology are also encouraged
Evaluation Criteria
Applications should contain:
Concept/Project Outline (approx. 500 words). What you envision working with NAO and your team. (This will not necessarily be the final approach and concept for the final team)
CV or Artist Statement (approx. 250 words)
Biography (approx. 100 words)
Motivation as to why NAO is of interest to you: 200 words or 1-minute video
Send the above documentation via this GOOGLE FORM before October 30th, 2023.
If you do not hear from us after 2 weeks beyond this date, consider your application unsuccessful.
Advisory Institutes for the selection of applicants:
IIS
RAIL Lab
TMG Makerspace
AOI
Commitment to Diversity
Robots-in-Residence setzt sich für die Förderung von Gleichberechtigung, Vielfalt und Inklusion ein und bittet um Bewerbungen von Personen aus allen ethnischen, geografischen, sozioökonomischen, kulturellen, alters- und geschlechtsspezifischen Gruppen sowie aus allen Bereichen der sexuellen Orientierung.
Terms and Conditions
In the spirit of openness and collaboration, programs/projects created within the residence will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International Public License, so that others may build off the programmes and further develop them to enhance the NAOs skillset and abilities.
About the Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with a global reach. With 158 institutes in 98 countries, it promotes knowledge of German abroad, encourages international cultural exchange and conveys an image of contemporary Germany. Our cultural and educational programs encourage inter-cultural dialogue and enable cultural involvement. With our network of Goethe-Instituts, Goethe Centers and cultural societies, we are partners for all who actively engage with Germany and its culture, working independently and without political ties.
ABOUT AOI
Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation is an independent and autonomous interdisciplinary institute in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University.
We work amidst the collapse of promise that pervades the exhausted state of music as a colonial academic discipline, pushing beyond its catechisms, its taboos, its hermetically sealed conversations, its silo thinking, its fear of change. We celebrate and curate the music archive as central to our desire for a future music studies, and cultivate a free space for interdisciplinary scholarship, experimentation and creative and intellectual risk-taking.
About IIS
One of the strategic thrusts of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) is to lead Africa into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Institute for Intelligent Systems (IIS) was established in 2016 within the University to act as a catalyst towards the UJ Strategy for Global Excellence and Stature (GES). IIS is one of UJ's flagship institutes for Global Excellence and Stature (GES 4.0).
Academic Development - The Institute deals with the development of multidisciplinary taught and online programs for postgraduate qualification and continuing professional development, for capacity building in the areas of machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science, Internet of Things (IoT), to name but a few areas.
Strategic Research - Research is currently being done to implement various 4IR technologies in fields such as Cyber-Physical Systems, Optimization, Predictive Maintenance, Controls and Communication.
Enterprise Development - IIS's enterprise facet works with industry and government entities in solving their problems using state of- the-art innovations.
About TMG Makerspace
TMG Makerspace seeks to promote and enable access to innovation through collaborative making, training, upskilling, and experimentation. Some of the practical engagements housed in the space include 4IR technologies such as 3D Printing, IoT (Internet of Things), Robotics, and Design for Digital Fabrication. TMG offers product development services to those looking to build products using or in the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Data Analytics. TMG is also committed to providing skills development opportunities to underrepresented communities, especially previously disadvantaged youth, in emerging technologies like 3D Printing, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things.
Partners
One of the strategic thrusts of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) is to lead Africa into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Institute for Intelligent Systems (IIS) was established in 2016 within the University to act as a catalyst towards the UJ Strategy for Global Excellence and Stature (GES). IIS is one of UJ's flagship institutes for Global Excellence and Stature (GES 4.0).
Academic Development - The Institute deals with the development of multidisciplinary taught and online programs for postgraduate qualification and continuing professional development, for capacity building in the areas of machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science, Internet of Things (IoT), to name but a few areas.
Strategic Research - Research is currently being done to implement various 4IR technologies in fields such as Cyber-Physical Systems, Optimization, Predictive Maintenance, Controls and Communication.
Enterprise Development - IIS's enterprise facet works with industry and government entities in solving their problems using state of- the-art innovations.
The RAIL Lab was founded in March 2014. It is based in Gauteng, South Africa, and is situated between the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and the Mobile Intelligent Autonomous Systems (MIAS) group at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria. Work in the RAIL lab focuses primarily on learning in autonomous systems. In particular, we are interested in the acquisition of behaviours, as well as knowledge about the environment around a learning system. Our work draws on tools from multiple fields including decision theory, machine learning, and computer vision, using techniques including reinforcement learning, Bayesian models, deep neural networks, and Monte Carlo tree search. Our work is generously aided by collaboration and partnership with a number of international research groups and institutions.
The aims of the lab are three-fold:
To further the state-of-the-art in research into artificially intelligent systems,
To act as a centre of excellence and nexus of activities around AI in Africa,
To benefit society through the application of our work.
TMG Makerspace seeks to promote and enable access to innovation through collaborative making, training, upskilling and experimentation. Some of the practical engagements housed in the space include 4IR technologies such as 3D Printing, IoT (Internet of Things), Robotics, and Design for Digital Fabrication. TMG offers product development services to those looking to build products using or in the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Data Analytics. TMG is also committed to providing skills development opportunities to underrepresented communities, especially previously disadvantaged youth, in emerging technologies like 3D Printing, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things.
Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation is an independent and autonomous interdisciplinary institute in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University.
We work amidst the collapse of promise that pervades the exhausted state of music as a colonial academic discipline, pushing beyond its catechisms, its taboos, its hermetically sealed conversations, its silo thinking, its fear of change. We celebrate and curate the music archive as central to our desire for a future music studies, and cultivate a free space for interdisciplinary scholarship, experimentation and creative and intellectual risk-taking.
