[ISEA2015] Artists Talk: Yoki Lee Yung Ki, Leong Pui Yee, Tarr Kálmán & Tomás Laurenzo — RUDEbot

Artists Statement 

In this talk we present RUDEBot, a robotic artwork that explores the distribution of power in Human-Robot Interaction. The artwork consists of a robot that tracks its spectators and attempts to hit them with a wooden stick. By breaking the conventional rules of robotic behaviour adding a controlled amount of violence, RUDEbot emphasizes the limitations of power structures in HRI.

RUDEbot is an robotic art piece that has his own character. In this project we’ve decide to break one of the law of “Three Law of Robotics”, it hits its audience when they intrude his “private space”. RUDEbot is a face recognition bot that interacts with the viewer in front of it. Its camera traces and tracks audiences’ face, and determines the hitting action whenever the audience enters the “private space” of RUDEbot, which is a distance in the programed. As the audiences look into it, it will stare back with movements. As the audiences’ face move backwards, RUDEbot will trace in and lean forward; and vice versa as the viewer goes nearer, RUDEbot will lean backwards as if it is shy or scared. When the viewer got too near and RUDEbot tracks it, the arm will rotate between 0 degrees to 180 degrees and hit the audience.
https://rudebot2015.wordpress.com/

  • Yoki Lee Yung Ki, Bachelor of Arts & Science (Hons) in New Media From Hong Kong. With multi-cultural background as a half-Taiwanese-half-Japanese. Always interested in looking into relationships and making connections.
  • Leong Pui Yee, Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Creative Media From Malaysia. Previously a digital advertising professional. Interested in human-computer interaction and installation arts.
  • Tarr Kálmán, Bachelor of Media Design in Moholy-Nagy University of Art and
    Design Budapest (MOME), Hungary. From Slovakia, exchange student in School Of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong in 2014. Started studying in art and design 7 years ago with animation than analog photography and tried out several of things, now exploring into Media Design.
  • Tomás Laurenzo, Assistant Professor, School of Creative Media of the City University of Hong Kong. Tomás Laurenzo is an artist and academic who works with both physical and digital media to explore the artistic construction of meaning and its relation with power and politics. Laurenzo’s production spans across different practices. His artworks and performances have been shown in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.