Johan Hoorn and Margo van Kemenade, both working on the Selemca project, were the guest curators at todays PhDO at the Waag Society in Amsterdam.
Barely arrived at the SELEMCA lab or Alice and DARwIn had to perform for the general public during the 8th PhDO session of Waag Society (link). The PhDO sessions are a regular update of relevant topics in academia for artists as well as professionals in the Creative Industries. This time, the session entitled Trust me, I’m a Robot was fully dedicated to SELEMCA: Margo van Kemenade confronted the audience with ethical dilemmas in introducing robot care, Marise Schot discussed the design aspects of building up a life-long relationship with your avatar, and Johan Hoorn demonstrated what state-of-the-art robotics can (e.g., be creative) and cannot do (e.g., be robust) (link). One of the questions was whether SELEMCA researchers found their inspiration in Sci-Fi to which Johan replied that the set up between Alice (emotion and communication) and DARwIn (physical task execution) follows the 3PO – R2D2 arrangement. Finally, visual artist Erik Fakkeldij (not part of SELEMCA) showed pictures and films of his remote controlled steam punk engines built of animal bones and motor parts, provoking a nice response from the audience how this may be integrated with a Caredroid.
