Bailey Ambrose Heller, a mechatronic artist and Town Hall’s Fall 2024 Artist-in-Residence, will explore his passion for robotics and process for creation at his October 15 Scratch Night event. The Town Hall Marketing team asked Bailey a few questions about his creative process and how he uses technology to reflect aspects of humanity. Read on for a fun and fascinating chat!
How did you get into robotics?
Legos. I was obsessed with Legos. I built many Lego robots in elementary school and entered many robot competitions. But the competitive aspect was never appealing to me. My favorite part of any competition I attended was seeing how others approached the same challenges that I had been focused on for months.
What do you hope to discover in your build process during this residency?
I want to have the design and behavior of my robot shaped by the audience. At Scratch Night, I’m looking forward to receiving feedback and suggestions on what people want to see. And for the final presentation, I am excited to deliver an experience with this robot unique to the Town Hall stage.
Have you ever been surprised by one of your creations?
I’ve mostly been surprised by the range of people’s reactions to them. Some approach with sympathy, talking to the robots and coming close to meet their gaze. Others are more off-put, they keep their distance and make negative comments about automation. For a few, they invoke images of killer robots as depicted in the Terminator movies. I appreciate all reactions and want every creation of mine to spark a unique emotional experience.
I imagine there is a lot of testing and recalibrating that happens in the process of building a robot, have you ever had to give up and start over on a concept?
So many times. I have so many prototypes scattered across my workspace. But I learn so much from those iterations. With my drumming robot, I started the project by spending a month building and testing a motorized arm that ended up being too bulky. But I had so much fun making it, and that’s what made me branch out to using compressed air actuation for the first time. So I proudly placed this learning moment on my shelf for display (after salvaging the motor of course).
What would you say to someone who’s maybe a little worried about an AI takeover?
The potential uses of AI are vast and important, but the capability and potential of AI isn’t as great as some technologists are telling you it is! AI is good at identifying apples in images, but it can’t bake an apple pie from scratch. The gap between humans and the artificial brains we create is so vast that the real danger comes from overestimating its ability and letting it handle decisions it is not equipped to solve without having a human in the loop. AI is an incredible tool that can help solve many complex issues and make many of our systems far more efficient and effective. But AI is only a tool, we must keep humans as part of these automated systems – human intuition and discernment is an essential component. It’s also important to have a skeptical eye – knowing what to look for to identify AI-generated content, especially on the internet. We need to stay conscious of our application of this new technology as with all innovations but rest assured, we are not in danger of an AI robot uprising.
Learn more about the art of robotics at Bailey’s free Scratch Night on Tuesday, October 15 at 7:30PM.
