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These video works are filmed in the style of a naturalist researching animal behaviour in the wilderness, but the subjects being researched are four robots. A robot is deterministic; it is a character without free will. A robot's behaviour is determined by the external control of its environment and the internal control of its program, but yet in running a robot, glitches arise that defy the confines of the program and the robot behaves in a manner not intended.

I program my robots in their language, assembler. In doing so, I am able to create a relationship of compromise with the robots as it is easy to make a mistake. These videos visualize how a forgotten or misplaced command creates an unexpected behaviour. These video works mimic organic behaviours to accentuate the discovery process I go through to understand the robot. The robot becomes its own entity through my inability to be omnicompetent

The robots in their social interactions with each other are designed in their personalities to show how their ability to self analyze, when carried to an extreme, results in an inability to function. The robots' obsessive tendency to self evaluate cause their behavioural responses to act without instinct, without self preservation.

Field Studies Version 1 from Jessica Field on Vimeo.

This is an excerpt of a four video experiment that gave rise to the idea of the artist observing and studying their own creation. To re-document the project and to change the narrative context about what the robots were like from a total human perspective that ignores the rigorous study what how the robots actually behave and think. The intention of the project was to slant the interpretation

Blackboard drawing of all robots' relationships to each other.

Observational Study of all four robots:

Observational Studies of a robot Ecosystem from Jessica Field on Vimeo.

Field recordings from observing the social interactions between the Line Drawing, Line Reading, Light Seeking and Light Emitting robots for part of one day. Recordings were taken on October 29, 2007.

The Light Emitter Robot:

Field Studies: Light Emitter from Jessica Field on Vimeo.

Explanation video on the Light Emitter robot. This video describes the accumulative research that has been acquired on the social behaviours of this particular robot. It is clear that this species does not have observational skills to be attentive to other species of robot.

The Light Seeker Robot:

Field Studies: Light Seeker Robot from Jessica Field on Vimeo.

After much research, these social behaviours have been attributed to the actions and reactions of the Light Seeker robot. This robot shows all the impatience of a species of robot driven by instant gratification.

The Line Drawing Robot:

Field Studies (Drawing Robot) from Jessica Field on Vimeo.

The observational discoveries of the Drawing Line Robot species. It is without a doubt that this species of robot lives in its own paradigm where its complete attention to light drives all of its behaviours.

The Line Reading Robot: