Origin of the name:
Walter Benjamin was convinced that technologically mediated artistic achievements were simply inferior to the traditional arts because they lacked authenticity and charisma.
William Grey Walter built the first electromechanical behavioral species, which he named machina speculatrix. His tortoises had a transparant plastic shell and were responsive to their environment. They were undoubtedly authentic and truly charismatic.

Purpose:
to build a creature, and later on a species, that is strong, flexible, and powerful enought to execute nomadic art missions in earthlike and other critical environments.

Are acoustic and visual information treated similarly at higher levels of processing where the integration is presumed to occur (in the brain of course)?

Are the socio-cultural and geographical differences within audiovisual perception relevant for the further development of an art[ificial]ist species (2AS)?

Is a mobile, responsive, behavioral, environmentally conscious, and essentially audiovisually perceiving, art[ificial]ist species able to create (maybe for the first time in history) a responsible art for all humans, animals and machines?

Roving Walter Walter consists of a set of 4 independently controlled wheels, a camera and 2 microphones.
It races across the room, analysing perceived audio + visual data.

It localises sounds and objects for sampling, and keeps track of collections of data it acquired in the past on other locations.

Thus: his constitution is essentially nomadic in nature like most humans.

Based on the sampled material it generates series of audio and visuals, within a time-based composition.

Cultural change is the keyword here.

Roving Walter Walter is able to compute the difference between previously recorded audiovisuals and the currently acquired material.

This is the basis for new and intelligent synthesis.

The analysis, mobility, sampling, and synthesis algorithm is carried out by a small portable computer on the chassis.

The continuous composition is displayed on an high quality lcd-screen and mobile loudspeakers, integrated in the design.

Roving Walter Walter behaves like a smart pet, following visitors and showing them the beauty of audiovisual realtime creations.

When Roving Walter Walter's pedagogical functions get activated (critical interaural+visual response to the environment) it computes a localised version of the "internationale" (Eugene Pottier, Paris, 1871).

Roving Walter Walter can cite from memory 13 versions of this historical composition, in most commonly spoken languages and in all popular orchestrations.

On top of that, Roving Walter Walter can improvise on the theme, and suggest viable future versions to a bewildered audience.

After simply being switched on|off, Roving Walter Walter knows when to sleep and work by himself on location, no additional assistance is needed.

Roving Walter Walter is an independent pioneering ar[tificial]ist, 01 of a new species, authentic and charismatic.

batteries

external power

hearing

vision

: powerpack racing batteries, 8.4 V, 1500mAh

: none

: 2 mono wide angle microphones

: ccd video camera