He has built props for Francis Ford Coppola, danced in a ballet, played with the San Francisco real estate business and become a performance fixture at the annual Burning Man festival. But now, Marque Cornblatt is pushing us all to stare technology in the eyes and find something human.

As an SF State master's candidate in the Creative/Informational Arts program, Cornblatt, now 40, has premiered the latest version of Sparky, a decade-old experiment in what he calls "autonomous telepresence." In other words, Sparky combines the digital interaction people most commonly experience using Webcams or video phones – telepresence – with a robot body that wheels around freely.

"I think this is a precursor to the android of tomorrow," said Tracy Swedlow, who organized the Television of Tomorrow conference on Feb. 13, which promoted new technologies in interactive television. "Marque's exploring some ideas that are much further ahead [than today's mainstream technology],” Swedlow said.

From a wireless Internet connection that could be across the world from the actual robot, Cornblatt controls Sparky's tank-tread feet, its broadcast voice and its projected face. A microphone and camera pick up the conversation on the other end and send it back to him.

By placing the camera behind a projected reflection of the onboard computer screen, Cornblatt is able to simulate actual eye contact between the robot and its human company.

"Organic human experience is becoming less and less common," Cornblatt said. "I'm interested in how we use technology systems to mediate our identity. We're blurring the distinctions between the human and the mechanical."

The project represents a wide range of ambitions.

"I'm trying to tap into a childhood promise our culture put forth," Cornblatt said, "In the ′70s and ′80s, robots were everywhere in the media. Science fiction movies gave us the idea of a robot companion. So I spent a lot of time growing up expecting this particular future to arrive."

Cornblatt also said this kind of technology is something the military often employs for bomb disposal and other uses, and he'd like to see it applied toward more pedestrian tasks.

"I can see Sparky as a museum docent giving tours, a substitute teacher, a host in social situations. Office managers could use the technology to interact with their employees when they're out of town," he said. "It's a new idea and a little unsettling, but it won't be radical for very long."

Stephen Wilson, an art professor in the C/IA program, said he sees Cornblatt's work as part of a larger movement in which artists are tackling high-tech subjects with a grassroots, "do it yourself" approach.

"As a society gets more and more technical, there is a danger that everyday life becomes increasingly mystified. People don't understand how things work. It is easy to fall into the role of passive consumer. Artists such as Marque provide a healthy antidote to that tendency. They explore technologies that most people don't realize can be investigated," Wilson said.

Cornblatt has turned his attention lately to creating self-portraits using the character-building features in Xbox 360 games. He also produces "Gomi Style," a series of lifestyle-themed online TV shows named after the Japanese word for “dust” or “garbage.” In the most recent edition, he gutted a junked-out old motorcycle and rebuilt it to be completely powered by electricity.

As a child, Cornblatt experienced the merging of machines into human life personally. He describes himself then as a daredevil, with Evel Knievel as his hero, always trying out dangerous stunts. When he was eight, he was impaled through the stomach by the handlebars of his bicycle. He spent a month in the hospital.

"I was hooked up to every machine the hospital had," he said. "It was almost like 'The Matrix.' It was maybe the most formative experience of my childhood.

"I could easily have had a permanent need for all that [equipment]. So the idea of a robot as the repository for a soul isn't so scary. I'm more comfortable with these things. And the act of recovery, of becoming organic again, gave me an appreciation of the subtleties of what that means."

Cornblatt has been pursuing art for most of his life. He has displayed his work in galleries, tried his hand at commercial art and won awards for his short films.

But reflecting on his degree in film from New York University, he said that "the experience wasn't very much like art school," and he decided to try academia again.

"So far, it has been the element I've needed to tie my work and ideas together into a cohesive framework… I think it's great that SF State has a three-year master's program," he said. "It's one of the few schools that does. I'm facing one more year to go, and I'm glad for it – two years in, I'm just hitting my stride."