Created by Carolin Liebl and Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler (Liebl and Schmid-Pfähler), RE:PLACES, stands for ‘Recycling PLA Closed-Circuit Extrusion Shaper’ is a complex 1.70-meter-high robotic apparatus that excretes the plastic objects and then deposits them around the exhibition space like three-dimensional brushstrokes.

Resembling a three-legged planetary landing module, the apparatus, using a branched funnel system, transports differently colored granules made from plastic waste. The material is heated up and then compressed in a cylindrical extruder inside the robot, after which it’s finally squeezed out at the bottom as a viscous colored substance. The hot material bulges and twists until it cools down and solidifies into its final shape. In a creative process lasting several minutes, the 1.70-meter-high robot excretes the plastic objects and then deposits them around the exhibition space.

Colorful, formally expressive sculptures set the stage at the beginning of the performative installation. On closer inspection, the objects seem atypical for their particular material makeup—solid plastic forming multicolored abstract shapes with occasional bubbles on their surfaces. The compact, weighty pieces are made of various types of plastic that are the waste products of industrial production.

Liebl and Schmid-Pfähler

This creates a variety of intertwined forms with glassy surfaces and fascinating transitions in hue—material qualities not usually associated with plastic. The visual and haptic experience leads to an intuitive aesthetic approach to the thematic complex of plastic and the problems arising from its use. The objects created during an exhibition can serve again as raw material, thus completing the cycle.

The apparatus is a DIY plastic extruder after instructions from precious plastics. It is a self designed and built robot body made of stainless steel, fiberglass and 3D printed parts. It also uses a self shredded (PLA) plastic waste from 3D printing, stored in exchangeable containers on the robot. Comprised of a heat and distance sensors, 4x BLDC motors (one for the extruder, three for the robot-movement), 2 motorcontrollers from ODrive Robotics, 2x Teensy microcontrollers, 1x esp-32 and a sony playstation 4 controller for steering. Software includes arduino & python code for driving and temperature control.

Project Page | Liebl and Schmid-Pfähler

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Abstract Ecologies – A Conversation with Amber Christensen

“There Should be Gardens” is the title of the 14th edition of InterAccess’s Emerging Artists Exhibition. Drawing on her research in feminist/queer curatorial and media arts practices, the exhibition is curated by Toronto’s Amber Christensen and showcases five Canadian early career artists whose practices address “the interconnectedness of technologies, ecologies, botanies, gender and the cosmos.” In aggregate the show’s selected works invoke elemental qualities, amplify and abstract natural materialities, and offer different modes of seeing and engaging the world. With the show winding down this week, CAN engaged Christensen in a Q&A to unpack the show’s framing and provocative works.

MoonQuest – Procedurally generated adventure game

Created by Wizard Mode (Ben Porter), MoonQuest is a single-player procedurally-generated adventure game set in a strange nocturnal world. The gameplay is a mix of roguelike and minecraftian genres and sits somewhere between Terraria and Spelunky, with the main aim to search the generated world for moonstones.

Pour Reception – Water as a digital (material) interface

Created by Tore Knudsen, ‘Pour Reception’ is a playful radio that uses machine learning and tangible computing to challenge our cultural understanding of what an interface is and can be. Two glasses of water are turned into a digital material for the user to explore and appropriate.

Creative Robotics Symposium @ UAL: Creative Computing Institute

The Creative Computing Institute will host an international line-up of established speakers from University of Tokyo, Imperial College London and UAL.

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Vincent & Emily – Two robots in a relationship struggle and emotional conflict

Vincent & Emily are two self-willed robots who are in a conflict between each other and their surroundings, designed to explore solitude of a partner relationship and their impulses.