empathizer CyNetArt2000 Festival for Computeraided Art November 9-26, 2000 Diary of the Development of empathizer The roots of the project lead back to the first robotlab project 'aesthetics and power' in march 2000 as a first contact between the applied brain scientist Guenter Haffelder and robotlab ensued. The cooperation tend to the CyNetArt2000 festival in Dresden as a suitable presentation place. A further cooperation with the University of Karlsruhe was established. The student Christian Drumm started a student research for programming a software which analyses and visualises brain voltages (supervision by Martina and Markus Ehrenmann of the IPR - University of Karlsruhe, Prof. Dillmann). End of april: Submission of the common concept to the CyNetArt2000: lab-like installation for the interconnection of brain and machines. June: The concept is accepted by the CyNetArt and awarded by the city of Dresden and the country of Sachsen. Exhibition period is the 10th to 26th november in the Hygiene Museum Dresden. July: Martina and Christian produce a first core of the software. Up to now two visits in the Institute for Communication and Brain Research in Stuttgart. Begin of september: The piece gets the title 'empathizer'. First theoretical texts and graphics. Begin of october: The statics of the Hygiene Museum seems to be a problem. The floor loading of the building is only 200 kg/qm. Consultations with Dr. Nicolai from the cultural department of the city of Dresden with Mrs Vassas and Mrs von Oertzen from the Hygiene Museum and with the engineer Mr Lindner. The problem gets solved with smaller and less heavy metal fundaments of KUKA, with additional wooden fundaments and by consideration of the special static conditions in the building. Mo 16/10/2000 Discussion in the Institute for Communication and Brain Research about the software for processing the brain data. The first robot of type KR 15 should be delivered at the ZKM and set up in the Institute for Image Media but there is trouble with the availability because of the great demand. Th 19/10/2000 The first robot arrives (from Korea). Fr 20/10/2000 Important scenographic components are provided: Matthias organizes wooden barriers for the robots and a small round platform as an info-terminal. Red mats around the terminal should invite the visitors. Sa 21/10/2000 Matthias and Christian design the graphical layout of the analysis software. It get the name 'braintool'. Mo 23/10/2000 After overcoming lots of technical obstacles by Martina the robots do their first movements. One more day in the Institue for Communication and Brain Research with Christian Drumm and robotlab. Creation of a concept for further evaluation of the Fourier-analysis. Mo 24/10/2000 Der zweite Roboter wird ins ZKM geliefert. Beide KR 15 stehen bei der BlueBox im Institut fuer Bildmedien. Christian und Matthias besprechen erste Konzepte fuer die graphische Ausgabe der Software. We 25/10/2000 Martina closes the last chain link between brain and robot. The EEG signal gets now analysed and visualized by a JAVA software. A Visual Basic interface communicates the results to KRL (KUKA Robot Language) in the units which control the electric engines of the robots. Both robots gets a power supply and first program tests are executed. Sa 28/10/2000 Christian and Jan work on the last improvements of the measurement data processing. Variations and mean values are the main statistic tools for the analysis. Tu 31/10/2000 Last concept phase: final functional structure of the evaluation software, robot control, choreography and interaction pattern are fixed. We 01/11/2000 First systematic experiments with the extended statistical analysis in the 'braintool'. Experiments with thoughts lead in nearly all cases to changes in certain frequences. A classificator for the interpretation of the results gets programmed. Martina brazes the last circuit boards and connectors for the data transfer. Sa 04/11/2000 For the first time the robots are controled by the 'braintool'. If noone carries the brain interface then the robots move randomly. If a test person is connected the movements can be manipulated by trying to activate the brain. Everyone is fascinated because the robot movements are not predictible. So 05/11/2000 Last detail works. The software gets finally tested and adjusted. In the afternoon robotlab gives a small presentation for the ZKM people. Later the complete installation is disassembled and packed. Mo 06/11/2000 At 8:00h in the morning the conveyance Schenker comes and delivers robots and all material from ZKM to Dresden.