[ISEA2011] Panel: Kathy Cle­land (moderator) – Signs of Life: Human-Robot Intersubjectivities

Panel Statement

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?

  • Kathy Cle­land is an Aus­tralian-based cu­ra­tor, writer and re­searcher spe­cial­is­ing in new media art and dig­i­tal cul­ture. She is Di­rec­tor of the Dig­i­tal Cul­tures Pro­gram at The Uni­ver­sity of Syd­ney, an in­no­v­a­tive cross-dis­ci­pli­nary pro­gram that crit­i­cally in­ves­ti­gates the so­cial and cul­tural im­pacts of new dig­i­tal media tech­nolo­gies. Her cu­ra­to­r­ial pro­jects in­clude the Cyber Cul­tures ex­hi­bi­tion se­ries which toured to over 20 venues in Aus­tralia and New Zealand (2000–2003), the Mir­ror States ex­hi­bi­tion (2008) at MIC Toi Rere­hiko, Auck­land, NZ and Camp­bell­town Arts Cen­tre, Syd­ney, and Face to Face: por­trai­ture in a dig­i­tal age for d/Lux/Me­di­aArts, a dig­i­tal por­trai­ture ex­hi­bi­tion cur­rently tour­ing Aus­tralia and Asia (2008-2011). Kathy is a found­ing mem­ber the Robot Cul­tures re­search ini­tia­tive set up by the Dig­i­tal Cul­tures Pro­gram and the Cen­tre for So­cial Ro­bot­ics Cen­tre at the Uni­ver­sity of Syd­ney. She is on the Or­gan­is­ing Com­mit­tee and is Chair of the Cu­ra­to­r­ial Com­mit­tee for ISEA2013 in Syd­ney. csr.acfr.usyd.edu.au   kathycleland.com