about
Official Bio:
Kirsty Boyle is an Australian artist whose passion for robots has driven her to travel the world in order to work with other like-minded artists and scientists. Kirsty’s work examines robots as subjects of culture with particular emphasis on how we experience and personalise our interactions with them. The historical and cultural aspects of robots in society continues to be a major theme that informs her artistic practice.
Her practice is truly interdisciplinary, encompassing skills in sculpture, theatrical performance, film and animation, digital arts and design, mechanical and electrical engineering and artificial intelligence. She has presented her work via various mediums, primarily via exhibition, but also television, radio and magazine interviews, to delivering lectures at educational institutions and facilitating forums and workshops internationally.
During 2002, Kirsty began study under Mr Tamaya Shobei, a ninth generation Karakuri Ningyo craftsman and last remaining mechanical doll Master in Japan. She is currently his only student, and the only woman to have ever been trained in the tradition.
Subsequently her artwork was featured in an educational robotics book produced by Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (the German Air and Space Agency), of which 180,000 copies were distributed to every high school student in Germany. Her website http://www.karakuri.info was featured in the AI Lectures from Tokyo, an online education initiative at the University of Tokyo, Japan and is included in a growing number of Universities’ introductory Artificial Intelligence courses worldwide. She is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on Karakuri.
In 2010 she produced tree ceremony, commissioned by the Museum Tinguely and Kunsthaus Graz for the Robot Dreams exhibition, touring 2010 – 2011.
She has completed residencies at the AI Lab, University of Zurich;Â MedienKunstLabor @ Kunsthaus Graz; Â Medialab-Prado, Madrid;Â Artspace, Sydney in collaboration with Natalie Jeremijenko and Remnant/Emergency ArtLab;Â SCANZ EcoSapiens, Taranaki, New Zealand;Â Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden, Germany;Â Floating Land Festival, Boreen Point, Australia and The Edge | Digital Culture Centre (QLD State Library), Brisbane.
Comprehensive CV is available here.