Abstract
Robots are necessarily transdisciplinary things. Like everything that occupies that space in-between our taxonomies, or that third space, they can evoke strong feelings of curiosity or fear. The elements of variance and verisimilitude they can embody create a distance, another space, wherein curators can draw attention to the cultural aspects of robotics by researching and displaying the ‘stuff’ of robotics in cross-disciplinary contexts, such as exhibitions. This chapter will focus on the exhibitions of artist Mari Velonaki and Deborah Turnbull Tillman (in collaboration with fellow curators) whereby elements of robotics have come into proximity with exhibitions on art, design, computers and engineering. Their display in the context of collaborative making, audience engagement and notions of authenticity makes them social, and by extension, cultural.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
YouTube user djobizz, 18 Feb 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek9xrR4FGZI, accessed 21 November 2022.
- 2.
https://robological.com, accessed 17 November 2022.
- 3.
https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/marcs, accessed 17 November 2022.
- 4.
https://www.creativityandcognition.com/, accessed 17 November 2022.
- 5.
https://debturnbulltillman.wixsite.com/newmediacuration/past-1/Beta_space—accessed 17 November 2022.
- 6.
https://www.isea2013.org/, accessed 17 November 2022.
- 7.
https://www.anat.org.au, accessed 17 November 2022.
- 8.
https://wademarynowsky.art/Acconci.html, accessed 17 November 2022.
References
ANAT: Australian Network for Art and Technology: https://www.anat.org.au. Accessed 17 Nov 2022
Beta_Space: New Media Curation. https://debturnbulltillman.wixsite.com/newmediacuration/past-1/Beta_space. Accessed 17 Nov 2022
Cleland K (2011) In: Aceti L (ed) ISEA ISTANBUL 2011: Uncontainable. Conference and exhibition program 14–21 Sept 2011. https://www.isea-archives.org/docs/2011/program/ISEA2011_Istanbul_Program.pdf. Accessed 15 Nov 2011
Creativity and Cognition Studios, University of Technology, Sydney. https://www.creativityandcognition.com/. Accessed 17 Nov 2022
ISEA2013: Resistance is futile. https://www.isea2013.org/. Accessed 17 Nov 2022
Knox E (2022) Pathetic fallacy. http://www.elenaknox.com/pathetic-fallacy.html. Accessed 21 Nov 2022
Kroos C, Herath D, Stelarc (2012) Evoking agency: attention model and behaviour control in a robotic art installation. Leonardo 45(5):401–407 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_00435
Latour B (2004) Why has critique run out of steam? Crit Inq 30(2):225–248
MAAS: Powerhouse Museum (2022) Robots and machines event. https://www.maas.museum/program/robots-robots-and-machines/. Accessed 21 Nov 2022
MacDorman KF, Ishiguro H (2006) The uncanny advantage of using androids in cognitive and social science research. Interact Stud 7(3):297–337
Magnusson J (2013) Objects versus things. ResArc, Sweden: Dr Hélène Frichot, critical studies in architecture, KTH Stockholm. Published 11 Mar 2013. http://philosophiesresarc.net/2013/03/11/objects-vs-things/. Accessed 9 Oct 2015
MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development. University of Western Sydney. https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/marcs. Accessed 17 Nov 2022
Marynowsky W (2012) The acconci robot. https://wademarynowsky.art/Acconci.html (2012). Accessed 17 Nov 2022
Muller L, Bennett J, Froggett L, Bartlett V (2015) Understanding third space: evaluating art-science collaboration. In: Proceedings of the 21st international symposium on electronic art (ISEA 2015). Vancouver, BC, Canada. http://isea2015.org/proceeding/submissions/ISEA2015_submission_332.pdf. Accessed 30 Sept 2015
Powers D et al (2008) PETA: a pedagogical embodied teaching agent. In: Proceedings of the 1st ACM international conference on pervasive technologies related to assistive environments, PETRA 2008, Athens, Greece, July 16–18, 2008. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221410488_PETA_a_pedagogical_embodied_teaching_agent. Accessed 21 Nov 2022
Reinhardt D, Loke L, Tillman D (2022) SHErobots: tool : toy : companion. Tin Sheds Gallery, University of Sydney, 20 Oct 2022–10 Dec 2022, Australia. ISBN: 978-0-6455400-5-5
Robological (2022). https://robological.com. Accessed 17 Nov 2022
Turnbull D, Connell M (2011) Prototyping places: the museum. In: Candy L, Edmonds E (eds) Interacting: art, research and the creative practitioner. Libri Publications, Faringdon
Turnbull D, Connell M (2014) Curating digital public art. In: Candy L, Ferguson S (eds) Interactive experience in the digital age. Springer, London, pp 221–241
Turnbull Tillman D (2015) Robots and culture: an interview with Matthew Connell, 11 Sept 2015. New Media Curation. http://www.newmediacuration.com/blog/ (2015). Accessed 21 Nov 2022
Turnbull Tillman D, Velonaki M (2020) Shifting conversations in robotics with culture. New Media Curation. https://debturnbulltillman.wixsite.com/newmediacuration/post/shifting-conversations-in-robotics-with-culture (2020). Accessed 15 Nov 2022
Turnbull Tillman D, Velonaki M, Gemeinboeck P (2015) Authenticating experience: curating digital interactive art. In: Tangible, Embedd and Embodied Interaction (TEI'15), 16–19 Jan 2015, Stanford, pp 429–432
Velonaki M (2022) Fish-bird. MV Studio Website. https://mvstudio.org/work/fish-bird-cicle-b-movement-b/ (2002/3). Accessed 21 Nov 2022
Velonaki M (2009) The woman. MV Studio Website: https://mvstudio.org/work/the-woman/ (2009). Accessed 14 Nov 2022
Velonaki M, Diamandini MV (2022) Studio Website: https://mvstudio.org/work/diamandini-2011-2013/ (2009). Accessed 15 Nov 2022
Acknowledgements
This chapter has been seven years in the making. It derives from two important interviews listed in the References below. The first with Director of Curatorial, Powerhouse Museum (MAAS) Matthew Connell in 2015, and the second with Director of the Creative Robotics Lab and National Facility for HRI (UNSW), Mari Velonaki in 2020. Enormous thanks to both for their time and careful consideration of the topic.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tillman, D.T., Velonaki, M. (2023). On Display: Robots as Culture. In: Dunstan, B.J., Koh, J.T.K.V., Turnbull Tillman, D., Brown, S.A. (eds) Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and Their Emergent Cultural Ecologies. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28138-9_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28138-9_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-28137-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-28138-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)