Qlimate Qronobot | Maria Korporal

AI and the Future of Our Planet

The work is an installation with an augmented reality object and video projections.

The Qlimate Qronobot is a robot-like object composed of cubes, with each side printed with scannable black-and-white codes. These codes activate various augmented reality (AR) scenes, featuring an animated, multicolored interplay of analogue chalk drawings, AI-generated shapes and texts, and smaller virtual cubes that engage in a complex ball game.
With this work, I explore how AI could play a role in addressing climate change – hence the name Qlimate Qronobot, where “qrono” introduces a time-related dimension to the robot.
I asked an online AI: “Imagine you are the Qlimate Qronobot and I ask you what you can do to combat the climate crisis and save our planet. What would you answer?” The AI provided several responses, which I incorporated into the AR scenes. These answers are accessible only through the use of technology, emphasizing that AI and other digital advancements are fundamentally dependent on energy resources. This highlights the inherent contradiction: while AI holds potential, its usage is closely tied to energy consumption.

In the installation, the Qlimate Qronobot is illuminated by a video projection of a dystopian 360° landscape, that covers both the object and the wall behind it. A ceiling-mounted webcam captures the rotating Qronobot and its codes, which are then processed by a preconfigured computer to trigger the augmented reality scenes. The computer is connected to a projector, which displays the AR scenes on a separate wall. The grey tones of the 360-degree landscape are transformed into rainbow colours.

Guests can also scan the robot with their smartphones and look inside it – the augmented reality can be seen both on visitors’ mobile phones and on the projection in the adjacent space. This way, people become part of the augmented reality projection.

Maria Korporal introduces her Qlimate Qronobot (click on the image to open the video)

The installation on exhibition in GG3 Group Global 3000 (click on the image to open the video)

“Qlimate Qronobot” is part of the project Qorporal Quests: a series of multimedia installations where I interrogate global digital development in times of war and climate change. Solutions are presented through the interplay of analogue and digital technology.

Exhibitions and presentations:
• October 25-27, 2024: Italia Media Art Festival, as part of Rome Art Week at the Maker Faire, Gazometro of Rome.
• July 19 – August 16, 2024: Qlimate Qronobot. AI and the Future of our Planet. Solo exhibition by Maria Korporal in GG3 / Group Global 3000, Berlin. In this exhibition the artist will also show her videos Passing By, Give us back our shadows, Breathing Bags, Wandel and The Wishing Table.