Presentation by Paul Granjon 7.30 pm at the Sussex Arts Club, Brighton.

Paul Granjon founded Z Productions in 1988, which specialises in low technology applied to electronic arts. The output of Z Productions consists mostly of robots for performance or exhibition, short video films and internet related activities. Paul has been a part-time lecturer in video, performance and digital media on the Time Based Practice department of the School of Fine Art, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, UK since 1995. In 2004 he received a NESTA fellowship. He is one of four artists who have been selected to represent Wales at the Venice Biennale this year. At Blip Paul gave a lecture with videos and photographs of works made between 1996 and 2005 generated through the Z Lab's research and development programme.

He started his presentation with footage of an interview with Mark Pauline, founder of Survival Research Laboratories, whose "bottom of the bucket" approach to appropriating technology is an inspiration behind Z Lab's projects. Whereas SRL often appropriates military technology, Z Lab tends to use toys and the work is literally more touchy feely (Fluffy Tamagotchi, Furman, Toutou), exploring darker aspects of the relationship between humans and machines with humour rather than exposing them to physical danger. Paul gave a chronological overview of his projects and showed footage of his performances (Z Lab Transported). A key area explored in all of his work is the future (and present) of humans and machines. Paul's use of familiar, off the shelf technology and his humourous performances make his work appealing to a wide audience and his presentation attracted one of our largest audiences who filled the Sussex Arts Club.

Before and after the presentation Bill Bigge and James Mandelis demonstrated a variety of robotic technology: a hexapod robot; a 2-wheeled balancing robot; an autonomous obstacle avoiding robot; and four velcrobots developed as part of the 2004 Blip collaborative robotics project.