Robots at ease

Few days ago unstoppable Google notified me that Agnieszka Pilat visited Melbourne with three robots to demonstrate their painting capabilities.

If painting then National Gallery of Victoria - NGV.
I started Googling: "NGV pilate..." - Google suggested - NGV pilates.

It was enough to distract me, so I followed this lead - results:
- pilates class (gymnastic exercises) on the roof of the gallery,
- Contrology - a sculpture of a board with legs and a fin performing Pilates exercises (note - this was the name used by Joseph Pilates when he invented his exercise technique.)
- Dream of Pilate's wife - engraving from 1874

STOP!
Contrology - time to take control of Google, I enquired "Agnieszka Pilat NGV".
Got her!

Source: Instagram.

Last Sunday, Melbournians could see the robots in action and watch in person an interview with Ms. Agnieszka.

3 o'clock, the very center of the city, what a crowd, traffic, chaos, confusion.
In front of the railway station, a homeless woman is sleeping carelessly on the ground.
A few steps further and I'm right in the middle of this crowd.
I must admit that it was a bit too much for me, I had maybe 150m to go, but after few steps I had had enough.

A calming interlude along the way, a bridge over the Yarra River...

In front of the gallery, a hand with a thumb pointing up encouraged me...

There was also a lot of traffic inside the gallery, free admission, various exhibitions, including those for children.

Only the sculptures of two proletarians brought some peace - only one could fit into the lens...

The interview with Mrs. Agnieszka took place in a huge hall, there were several rows of chairs at the front, then randomly placed chairs, stools, a bar counter, slight confusion.

I sat down in the second row of chairs, a slim blonde was sitting right in front of me, I also noticed yellow shoes, the same ones as in the photo at the beginning of the post...

Czy pani Agnieszka (Ms. Agnieszka)? - I asked in Polish.

Quite a surprise, but Ms. Agnieszka greeted me nicely, we talked for a while in Polish, then switched to English so as not to isolate us from the surroundings.

After a while, a highly titled interviewer approached us, time for the stage...

Unfortunately, this was a disappointment for me.

Firstly, there was a lot of noise in the hall,  secondly - talking through microphones, there was a huge reverberation in the room, it was difficult for me to hear and understand it. The conversation was translated into sign language, I thought deaf people "heard" more.
Thirdly, and most importantly, this conversation did not make much sense to me :(

Here is some approximation of its content - CLICK.

I did not have a chance to talk to Mrs. Agnieszka anymore, so I moved to see the robots in action...

The robots did not paint, they just moved around two rooms connected by a passage with stairs. From this I concluded that they have sight, but I guess they could not hear, I spoke to them in Polish and English and there was no sign of reaction.

So here I will share the questions that bothered me:
- what activities robots are programmed to perform and what activities they perform on their own - if they do anything on their own at all.

Specifically - we turn on the robot and what?
Will it move at all? Why?
On what principle does it change the direction of movement, nod its head, stops, moves from room to room???
Why is it painting?

During the interview, Ms. Agnieszka mentioned that humanity should seriously consider what kind of relationship we want to have with robots, who will be the aristocracy of the future, will technology mature to the stage of creating a religion?

I felt humbled and went to the exit.

A fountain of flames bid me farewell...

Agnieszka Pilat - Wikipedia - CLICK

Solar energy in action

 Last Saturday I made a walk around the neighbourhood...

Autumn tree and a roof covered by solar panels.
This house is not connected to the electricity grid, the tree also not.
Both depend on the smile of the sun, but the nature does it so beautifully.

Paderewski in Melbourne

I have known for a long time, that one of most distinguished Polish citizens - Ignacy J. Paderewski visited Australia and gave concerts in Melbourne and Sydney. No wonder, I looked for some Australian memories of this visit. I found quite a few.

Firstly, there was a story of a postcard mailed from Melbourne to Guernsey Island on 12 July 1904. It contains a report from Paderewski's performances in Melbourne and Sydney and an interesting cartoon showing I.J. Paderewski shaking hand with some representative of "Socialist Melbourne". This person was much, much later identified as Sir Malcolm Donald McEacharn, who in 1904 was Mayor of Melbourne.

Quoted report from The Bulletin is quite interesting too. It describes quite different reaction of Melbourne and Sydney audience. In Melbourne it was: "... crowds which thronged the building, applauding till their hands were sore and shrieking until they were hoarse".

In Sydney: "..the artist left the platform in a towering rage...During the performance some non-musical members of the audience drifted out of the hall as soon as their curiosity was satisfied. ... M. Paderewski played, as he stated later, with genuine pleasure to those whose appreciation had led them to remain. But he resented the lack of honour shown to a visiting artist by something like 500 people in hurrying away at such juncture. They are nothing but savages - said the irate artist. In Melbourne no one went out, and I played a longer programme. I have never had an audience behave like that - even in the Wild West”.

Here you are.

Secondly, I found a number of newspaper reports in The Argus ( here is a later one about a concert in October ) and in The Age.

Thirdly, I learned about some diplomatic scandal, which happened during second visit of Paderewski in Melbourne in 1927.

Luckily, I.J. Paderewski left in Melbourne a tangible sign of his visit. Wikipedia says, He planted a tree in the Melbourne Royal Botanic Garden. What tree? Where?

From the biography of the founder of Royal Botanic Garden, William Robert Guilfoyle, I learned, that it was an American red chestnut.

Equipped with such knowledge, I came on Australia Day 2011 to RBM Visitor Centre to find an exact location of the tree. The person at information desk searched diligently through some files and catalogues but in vain. Lastly, she looked at some printed document, which listed in alphabetical order all plants growing in the Garden. And there it was - at the very first position - aesculus x hybrida, planted by Ignace Paderewski!!!

Aesculus x hybrida?? What is it? What's it English name? It was not so easy to find. In the meantime we found, that it belonged to sub-family of chestnuts, namely horse chestnuts - hippocastaneae. And finally, we got it's English name - buckeye!! And it came from the state of Ohio, USA. So it was an American chestnut.

I received a map with a marking of the tree location ...




.. and here it was...





.. the tree is quite majestic..





I will have to visit it in Autumn to see it's fruits, whether they are red, or whether they remind buck eyes.