Session Title:

  • Signs of Life: Human-Robot Intersubjectivities

Presentation Title:

  • Untitled



  • Chair Per­son: Kathy Cle­land
    Pre­sen­ters: Simon Penny, Mari Velon­aki, Anne-Marie Duguet & John Tonkin

    This panel in­ves­ti­gates the ‘signs of life’ that are ex­hib­ited by ro­bots in ex­hi­bi­tions and per­for­ma­tive en­vi­ron­ments and the ways that au­di­ences per­ceive and re­spond to life-like qual­i­ties in ro­botic char­ac­ters. As ro­bots and hu­mans come to­gether in gallery in­stal­la­tions and per­for­ma­tive en­vi­ron­ments, dif­fer­ent types of hu­man-ro­bot in­ter­sub­jec­tiv­i­ties come into play. Both hu­mans and ro­bots be­come ‘so­cial ac­tors’ ne­go­ti­at­ing re­la­tion­ships and modes of in­ter­ac­tion. How do au­di­ences per­ceive in­ten­tion­al­ity, per­son­al­ity and emo­tion in ro­bots? This panel ex­plores how the phys­i­cal qual­i­ties and af­for­dances of the robot (for ex­am­ple, its size, shape, form, mo­bil­ity and modes of com­mu­ni­ca­tion) af­fect human in­ter­ac­tion and emo­tional in­vest­ment. How do ro­bots per­ceive and re­spond to their en­vi­ron­ments and to their human in­ter­ac­tors? Be­yond an­thro­po­mor­phism and bio-mime­sis, what other dis­tinc­tively ma­chinic ‘signs of life’ do ro­bots dis­play?