Random International: 15 Points

Le Laboratoire, Cambridge, MA

Spring 2016

Production | Exhibition Grant

Random International’s 15 Points (2014) is a kinetic installation developed by the artists following their residency with a robotics research group led by Harvard professor Robert Lowe. Working at the intersection of art and scientific theory, and drawing from the Picasso-Einstein tradition, 15 Points constitutes both minimalist sculpture and an experiment in the radical abstraction of the human form and its movement, in both time and space. 

Through the miniscule manipulation of fifteen light points’ movements, the installation generates the perception of a human being for the viewer. Beyond this highly nuanced humanoid rendering, 15 Points explores the particularities of perception and our ability to recognize this motion as animate versus purely mechanical. Conceptually, the project investigates the uncanny valley phenomenon – the subject of extensive research at present – through point-light representations of human motion and the first 3-D rendering via robotic implementation.

To learn more, visit Le Laboratoire, Cambridge.

Images: Random International, You Fade To Light, 2009, lumiblade OLEDs, custom circuit boards, aluminum suspension, camera based motion tracking system, custom motion tracking software, computer; 2740 x 1280 mm, Photo: Some / Things; Audience, 2008, mirror, metal cast bases, motors, custom motion tracking software, camera, computer, dimensions variable – each mirror 150 x 250 x 150 mm; Audience, 2008, mirror, metal cast bases, motors, custom motion tracking software, camera, computer, dimensions variable – each mirror 150 x 250 x 150 mm, Photo: Some / Things; Future Self, 2012, aluminum, custom electronics, Metrilus 3D cameras, LEDs, brass rods, 1200 x 1500 x 3450 mm. All images courtesy of the artists.