How Artists Improvise and Provoke Robotics

TL;DR

This paper examines how artists collaborate with roboticists through improvisation and provocation, creating innovative artworks that influence robotics research and societal perceptions.

Contribution

It introduces a transdisciplinary approach highlighting how artistic practices can shape and challenge robotics research and societal understanding.

Findings

Artists use improvisation to create extended robot experiences.

Artworks provoke societal reflection on robots and their implications.

Artists challenge traditional robotics methods and epistemology.

Abstract

We explore transdisciplinary collaborations between artists and roboticists across a portfolio of artworks. Brendan Walker's Broncomatic was a breath controlled mechanical rodeo bull ride. Blast Theory's Cat Royale deployed a robot arm to play with a family of three cats for twelve days. Different Bodies is a prototype improvised dance performance in which dancers with disabilities physically manipulate two mirrored robot arms. We reflect on these to explore how artists shape robotics research through the two key strategies of improvisation and provocation. Artists are skilled at improvising extended robot experiences that surface opportunities for technology-focused design, but which also require researchers to improvise their research processes. Artists may provoke audiences into reflecting on the societal implications of robots, but at the same time challenge the established techno-centric concepts, methods and underlying epistemology of robotics research.