Depok-AI-RO, a work of art that illustrates a robot as an artificial intelligence that seems to scan human faces, is a work created by Grace Victoria Brahmana, a student in the Creative Business study program, Vocational Education Program, Universitas Indonesia. This work is the final project he did for the Digital Art and Object Making course at The University of Western Australia. Grace had the opportunity to attend lectures at the Top 100 QS Ranking campus for one semester after passing the selection for the 2023 Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) program.
The naming AI-RO is taken from the acronym AI, namely Artificial Intelligence. Meanwhile, RO is taken from the two letters of Victoria’s middle name, ‘O’ and ‘R’ which are reversed to become RO. In the illustration design, AI-RO was created using mirror materials and Medium Density Fiber (MDF) wood. To the left of the round mirror is stacked with MDF wood cut by a laser. The layer of wood cut on the left side of the AI-RO provides detail and brings out the shadows which are the main focus. Next to it, there is a legend engraved in Latin, explaining the detection of colors on the right side of the mirror.
(Photo: AI-RO, Grace Victoria Brahmana’s AI adaptation artwork)
The way it works is very easy. Audiences can look in the mirror and see their reflection on the right side where there is a colorful box detector. These colors also have meaning, such as pink which symbolizes rosy cheeks, green which symbolizes the tree of knowledge, and blue which symbolizes calm. This detector seems to show the location of the audience’s facial features, such as the location of the eyes, nose and cheeks. Currently, AI-RO is still a mirror as usual. However, Grace hopes that in the future AI-RO will be able to detect faces using complex technology through collaboration with various scientific fields.
Grace explained that AI-RO’s work was inspired by Ai-Da, the first robot artist in the world who has the ability to paint using an artificial intelligence machine. Grace also took inspiration from Tony Oursler’s exhibition, ‘template/variant/friend/stranger’, “As a Creative Business student, AI-RO can increase my creativity to think creatively in creating a work of art. This creative thinking process is very useful for me in creating solutions or product development. In the future, I want to develop AI-RO which can automatically scan human expressions, such as showing feelings of happiness, sadness or anger,” said Grace.
(Photo: The atmosphere of teaching and learning activities at The University of Western Australia)
Apart from studying in class, one of the main beneficial aspects of IISMA is the opportunity to open a network of friends with foreign students and lecturers. Grace explained, “I am committed not to take classes with other Indonesian friends. This way, I will interact with fellow locals, even foreigners. Every time I meet them, I enrich myself by learning about culture, traditions and lifestyles from different backgrounds. Vice versa, I also explain them regarding Indonesian culture.” Apart from that, Grace also filled her free time while studying in kangaroo country by volunteering at several festivals, one of which was Evernow Perth 2023.
The Director of the UI Vocational Education Program, Padang Wicaksono, S.E., Ph.D, appreciated the work that Grace created. According to him, the opportunity to study abroad will provide new experiences that students in Indonesia have never had before. “I hope that this opportunity can be utilized as well as possible by UI Vocational students to develop their soft-skills and hard-skills. This experience will be a provision for them after graduating from UI Vocational,” concluded Padang.
