[ISEA2011] Panel: Kathy Cle­land – Ro­bots as so­cial ac­tors: au­di­ence per­cep­tion of agency, emo­tion and in­ten­tion­al­ity in ro­botic per­form­ers

Panel Statement

Panel: Signs of Life: Human-Robot Intersubjectivities

In gallery in­stal­la­tions and per­for­ma­tive en­vi­ron­ments ro­bots act as quasi-au­tonomous agents en­gag­ing their au­di­ences in so­cial in­ter­ac­tion and per­for­ma­tive in­ter­play. This paper looks at the dif­fer­ent ways hu­mans and ro­bots in­ter­act and re­late to each other and the ways au­di­ences per­ceive and re­spond to an­thro­po­mor­phic and bio-mimetic qual­i­ties in ro­botic char­ac­ters, specif­i­cally their per­cep­tions of agency, emo­tion and in­ten­tion­al­ity. The au­thor ar­gues that it is au­di­ence per­cep­tion rather than the in­nate qual­i­ties of the robot that de­ter­mines suc­cess­ful ro­bot-au­di­ence in­ter­ac­tions. Robot mor­pholo­gies, af­for­dances and pro­grammed be­hav­iours all play key roles in shap­ing au­di­ence per­cep­tion and re­sponses. This paper also con­sid­ers the role of stag­ing and the the­atri­cal mise-en-scène, scenog­ra­phy, dra­maturgy and chore­og­ra­phy in fram­ing the so­cial in­ter­ac­tion of ro­bots and hu­mans in gallery in­stal­la­tions and per­for­ma­tive en­vi­ron­ments.

  • 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

Full text (PDF) p. 443-448