#2026-W04 ### Work in progress; What a packed week! Mainly because I finally decided to start this email list. Social media is increasingly consuming us all, and I feel it is beneficial to maintain some distance while still *documenting (and publishing) the process.* --- **Host / Guest** is a project I am developing both as a continuation of my [research](https://kindl.work/2025/System) and as part of my current [V2.lab residency](https://v2.nl/labprojects/microdosing-a-i). ![[_files/Host_Process.jpg]] > **Why "Host"?** The title should reflect the ambiguity of the object's existence. While the machine serves as a technological host for the algorithm, the word **host** in Czech translates to **guest,** framing the machine as a foreign visitor entering human space, observing our presence, and imitating us in order to adapt.* In the last week (or rather weeks), I have been focusing mainly on finalizing the hardware of the object. After the System project, I decided to completely rethink the architecture of the object and design it almost from scratch. The machine is larger, more self-sufficient, and, above all, more stable. I finally decided to invest a little in better motors, and oh boy, it really makes a difference when the [servos](https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/ST3215_Servo) give you feedback. But still i managed to burn few of them. Anyway, I'm playing around with ideas for ground contact detection, calibration and overall system adaptability. --- ![[xxf.jpg]] I also worked on calibrating the servo, because even with the best efforts, individual joints have small deviations and it is necessary to calibrate the robot's position. When started, each leg slowly moves toward its mechanical limit (a feature of the design), while the servo reports the current draw; when the flow increases rapidly, the machine knows it has found its limit. The difference between the expected and actual values becomes a deviation, thanks to which the machine recognizes its own limits each time it wakes up. [> See how it works.](https://vimeo.com/1157933062/08fd70060f?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci) On the other hand, I am also developing a new audio system for **Host**. After some time, I am diving back into [Max/RNBO](https://cycling74.com/products/rnbo) software so that I can create audio patches directly for the [Raspberry Pi](https://www.raspberrypi.com/). Visual programming brings a special kind of joy because you encounter *completely different coincidences and errors* than in regular written code. Among other things, I am preparing something like a workshop and resources for Max as an environment for visual programming of new media. ![[_files/Screenshot 2026-01-18 at 9.38.38.jpg]] > *Host actively absorbs the soundscape, capturing fragments of it, which it processes and reorganizes. By resynthesizing these inputs into new sonic forms, the machine creates a unique form of communication, a primitive language through which it communicates with the world and signals its internal state.* --- ### Resources There are some ideas about *language* that I find fascinating. That's why I'm interested to see how similar concepts can be applied to the behaviour of machines. [We are programmable machines / Language is pseudo code. / Dave ackley](https://youtu.be/euFgci7Y318?si=52XLoZaHY4ZGgQCB) [The Latter Wittgenstein](https://youtu.be/X7Rb56kZQSk?si=3QIoPZgGWbfywM7r) [Chomsky / Origins of Language](https://youtu.be/7Sw15-vSY8E?si=HmKEczpGSoNnNDUT) --- If you are interested into fresh research in robotics outside of American companies, check out this recent lecture by my favorite robotics professor, who talks about organic ways to get into robotics. [Bio-Colloquium Lecture](https://youtu.be/H_2oLhGVz4s?si=2ulGNF-ahO2H149N) *"Robots are defined not from what they’re made from, but what they do" ... "They’re machines designed by us to do something useful on behalf of humans"* .., referring to Karel Čapek and the invention of the infamous word "robot." ---