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O. Schürer:
"Unhomely perceptions; constructing a cultural model of space by performing A.I.";
Talk: Research Salon, AIL Angewandte Innovation Lab; 2017-12-11.

Technical perception systems feed space in the form of numbers, geometries and images to its control algorithms. Yet, those systems are not able to relate data sets to the meanings humans associate with, nor can they place data in a culturally meaningful relationship to each other. For complex technical systems in close proximity to humans, this results in an absurd situation: systems that are being developed for the most intimate areas of human existence cannot participate in the human sphere of perception, hence cannot participate in our human reality. Therefore, we have developed an approach that connects the various perception systems. One of the most complex systems are humanoid robots. Those machines are about to enter not only retail but even more the assistive and care industries: There they evoke many expectations and cause an accumulation of problems with trust, acceptance, reliability, communication gap, uncanny valley effect, to mention just a few.
We understand a humanoid robot as a embodied artificial agent which perceives from its environment and has action capabilities and some aspects of autonomy. To cope with the absurd situation, we propose to develop a cultural space model (CSM), involving embodied artificial agents within the same context of meaning as humans. For this new field of day-to-day world problems, we need new methods of research that have to be transdisciplinary, as they are dispersed over the range of many disciplines. we developed a first sketch of a research method called Space Game. It reflects on the philosophical language game and relates expertise from artistic disciplines (visual arts education, architecture and dramatic performance) with those from computer science (automation technology and A.I.) and the humanities (philosophy and human/robot interaction).
Through staging of dramatic performances in public, the project is intended to intervene in dominant discourses on robotics my mainstream media, popular science and industries. It is meant to add critical perspectives, produce resistance against predefined scenarios of the forthcoming lifeworld with artificial agents embodied in humanoid robots. It will empower users to develop aspects of our changing cultural spaces on their own.

human sphere of perception, human reality, perception systems, humanoid robots, assistive and care industries, trust, acceptance, communication gap, embodied artificial agent, aspects of autonomy, cultural space model, transdiscipinarity, Space Game