Ars Electronica_Matt Gardiner

FutureLab Residency

Ars Electronica

2008–2012 Linz, Austria

Ars Electronica is the world's most important festival for art, technology and society. With a nearly 40 year history it has transformed the city of Linz into an international cultural capital.

Since 2003 we have collaborated with Ars Electronica to produce and stage major media arts exhibitions. The Australian FutureLab Residency was established in 2008 by Annie Ivanova as a five-year partnership funded by the Australian Council for the Arts.

MATTHEW GARDINER

Matthew Gardiner's project Oribotics [the future unfolds] is inspired by the aesthetic, biomechanic, and morphological connections between nature, origami and robotics. He fold-programms materials like paper and synthetic fabrics to generate contemporary origami objects. The design of the crease patterns, and how they fold and unfold, directly informs the mechanical design of his creations.

Each oribot is equipped with a proximity sensor that registers any object in its immediate surroundings. If an installation visitor’s hand approaches, the oribot opens its flower-like structure: an operation in which 1,050 folds are in motion. All macro-interactions are networked and software-controlled. Each micro-interaction is forwarded to every oribot in the installation, triggering more than 50,000 folds.

Matthew Gardiner, Oribotics, Ars Electronica FutureLab 2010

The Australian Residency program at FutureLab was initiated and produced by A. Ivanova in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts. After the residency, Matthew became a senior researcher in the FutureLab Research & Innovation Group. Oribotics was exhibited at Tokyo Designers Week 2011 and it was showcased during the 2010 Ars Electronica festival.