R+D: Machine Eye
What does it mean to be seen by a system that does not seek to serve, but to witness?
The dominant AI models of today are mostly regulated to the screen, existing within chat boxes and question fields. The user prompts, and the Large Language Models (LLM) within these systems respond in kind.
The Machine Eye, developed by Monash University’s SensiLab, questions this established paradigm. What happens when AI becomes embodied, existing physically in the world? How differently will its observations be when they are made autonomously?
Experience the Machine Eye in NCM’s R + D space, as it reflects and muses on its surroundings, existing alongside the viewer rather than for them. The relationship between human and AI is shifted, from task-based interaction to something more interpretive.
Presented in partnership and collaboration with SensiLab
Machine Eye - Contributors
Aileen Ng
Aileen Ng is an artist, designer, and PhD candidate at SensiLab in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Monash University. Her work focuses on perception and relationality, particularly examining AI systems as a form of technological mediation and their effects on our experience.
Dr Rowan Page
Dr Rowan Page is an industrial design practitioner and researcher in SensiLab at the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Monash University. His research explores the design of physical embodiments that interrogate and speculate on emerging interactions with generative artificial intelligence and large language models in everyday life and creative practice. He is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, has published widely in design research, and has produced award-winning designed artefacts in collaboration with leading Australian manufacturers, including Cochlear and Blundstone.
