Lasers and Robots Talk

About the event

The Fourth Portal offered a post-Gravesham Light Festival bonus event talk with the creators of the Laserium laser rig and the Crawley Bots. 

Before his fully immersive evening shows, the Ninja Tune legend Funki Porcini (James Braddell) discussed the formation of his laser rig along with engineer Andy Payne and artist Nicky Cure, creators of the Crawley Bots. Crawley Bots are an iterative prototype that bridges remote cars and fully autonomous robots. Visitors played and watched the Crawley Bots mooch around the Fourth Portal and outside LV21 Lightship throughout the weekend. The discussion ranged from the design process to how the Laserium and Crawley Bots are perceived by audiences.  

At the bottom of the page, a video outlines differences between lasers that can be viewed, as in the Laserium and those that can cut materials and burn.  

Inspirational and Innovative

Head of Data Analytics for a FinTech company, Elvin and his companion were walking the Thames Path when they stumbled upon the Crawley Bots. After a short play with the Crawley Bots, Elvin captured the very essence of the talk and Fourth Portal in 50 seconds, drawing the links between play, robots, learning, knowledge exchange and more. Watch.

3D Printed light reader

Software Engineer Graham Klyne brought the developing Monotype Compositions Tape Reader to the event. Conceived and led by artist Dawn Cole, Monotype Compositions is an ongoing collaboration alongside Graham and Fourth Portal to develop an audio reader for a punched spool from a Monotype printing machine. The spool created was used in printing the diary of Dawn's Great Aunt Clarice Spratling, a WWI VAD nurse.  

Discussion around the spool reader outlined the differences between light readers and lasers.  

Lasers and Robots were free to attend. 

This event has ended.