Federico Díaz and J. M. Ledgard: 'BOAR'
A robotic performance on the evolution of AI and the future of interspecies relationships
Federico Díaz and J. M. Ledgard, BOAR, landscape with grain field by © Rafal MilachLAS Art Foundation
‘It would be interesting to explore whether humans transition to creating new territories and why humans create AI (Artificial Intelligence) because this mirrors the shift of territory, searching for super territory – the transformation of the world into a simulation.’
– Federico Díaz and J. M. Ledgard
Federico Díaz
Díaz is a forerunner in the hybridisation of robotics and art. Since the 1990s, he has used new media to reveal immaterial and otherwise invisible aspects of our natural environment. His recent projects examine the relationship between nature, humankind and AI-equipped machines.
J. M. Ledgard
Ledgard is a Shetland Islands-born novelist and leading thinker on advanced technology, risk and nature. He is a chair of Interspecies Future and founder of Interspecies Money Group – an attempt to give financial value to animals, trees and other species at scale.
Federico Díaz and J. M. Ledgard, BOAR, performance impression by © Dario J LaganàLAS Art Foundation
About 'BOAR'
Commissioned by LAS, BOAR is the result of a long-term collaboration between artist Federico Díaz and author J. M. Ledgard. Conceptualised as a site-specific performance, BOAR took place on 9 July 2022 during the 12th Berlin Biennale at Hamburger Bahnhof — Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin.
Federico Díaz and J. M. Ledgard, BOAR, performance impression by © Dario J LaganàLAS Art Foundation
Interspecies* is dedicated to advancing the rights and opportunities of non-human life on Earth, utilising planetary scale computing. BOAR creates a bridge to this movement by addressing the question of how AI can build new relationships between humans, non-humans and technology.
* Interspecies refers to a new animistic culture that will condition the development of animal rights, ecology, design and computer technology.
Federico Díaz and J. M. Ledgard, BOAR, landscape with churned earth by © Studio Federico DíazLAS Art Foundation
An increasing need is coming to the fore to even out ways to steer AI towards the natural world. Not least because of rapid climate change, the accompanying crisis of massive species extinction and the increasingly mediating role of AI.
Federico Díaz and J. M. Ledgard, BOAR, animal fur by © Dario J. LaganáLAS Art Foundation
BOAR seeks to formulate a response to the dearth of research on the relationship between AI and nature. The twenty-minute performance features a Boston Dynamics robot imitating a wild boar and outlining what it might look like if AI perceived natural life forms.
Federico Díaz and J. M. Ledgard, BOAR, performance impression, man with tablet and robot by © Dario J LaganàLAS Art Foundation
At the same time, the performance focuses on the concept of super territories, which refers to a new ecosystem of the Earth that is both material and immaterial. Just as the natural wild boar searches for new territories, the robot boar explores the data landscape of a virtual forest and field and lets such a super territory emerge.
Federico Díaz and J. M. Ledgard, BOAR, performance impression, visitor crowd and robot by © Dario J LaganàLAS Art Foundation
Federico Díaz was one of the first artists to experiment with robots and, more recently, AI in his artistic work, demonstrating sociocultural change and leveraging thinking art and science together. With BOAR Díaz and Ledgard's project suggests that AI might generate positive possibilities for coexistence.
FEDERICO DÍAZ
BOAR, 2022
Robotic performance conceived in
collaboration with J. M. Ledgard
AR and Robot Programming:
Jaroslav Stehlík (Dream.Digital)
Studio Federico Díaz: Anna Minaříková, Dmitrij
Nikitin, Jakub Petr, Petr Pufler, Daniel Marko
Sound composition by: Jonáš Rosůlek
Commissioned by LAS (Light Art Space)
LAS
Dr Bettina Kames, Director
Amira Gad, Head of Programmes
Nicole Wittmann, Assistant Curator
Alexis Convento, Project Manager
Harriet Collins, Junior Producer
Felix Thon, Head of Marketing and Communications
Evelyn Nossol, Communications Manager
Alice Lamperti, Marketing and Communications
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