June 8, 2005
Turbulence Spotlight: "Eliza Redux" by Adrianne Wortzel
http://turbulence.org/spotlight/eliza/

"Eliza Redux" features a physical robot which, having passed the Turing
test with flying colors, thinks it is a human psychoanalyst and persists
in offering online pseudo- psychoanalytic sessions. Please help us to
bring this robot to its sensors. Peer consultation is available in the
Reception Area as well as archived sessions and other reference materials.

This human-robot interaction project is inspired by Joseph Weizenbaum's
1966 M.I.T. computer program ELIZA, which allowed for text-based human
conversation with a computer playing the role of a psychotherapist.
Weizenbaum's program was not meant to demonstrate intelligence, but to
engage the user emotionally and intellectually in a simulation of
artificial intelligence. In spite of the transparency of the program's
lack of intelligence, lab personnel were unable, or unwilling, to
distinguish the machine from a human psychotherapist and became so
dependent upon ELIZA for "therapeutic sessions" that eventually
Weizenbaum had to withdraw its use.

BIOGRAPHY

Adrianne Wortzel's work explores historical and cultural perspectives in
both physical and virtual networked environments as venues for
interactive robotic and telerobotic installations, performance
productions and texts. Recent projects have been made possible by
funding from the PSC-CUNY Research Foundation, a National Science
Foundation Award for developing robotics and theater, and a Franklin
Furnace Fund for Performance Art Award. Wortzel is a Professor of
Communication Design at New York City College of Technology/CUNY as well
as a member of the doctoral faculty of the Interactive Technology and
Pedagogy Certificate Program of the Graduate Center. She is also an
Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Cooper Union for the
Advancement of Science and Art where she is also the Founding Director
of StudioBlue, a fully equipped arena for creating telerobotic
performance productions.

For more Turbulence Spotlights, please visit http://turbulence.org/spotlight

<http://turbulence.org/spotlight>

–
Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director
New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org
New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856
Turbulence: http://turbulence.org
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