Humanoids
A project in consideration of what it means to make a robotic object, and questioning what assumptions are made when using the word robot:
Robot - does this bring to mind a walking, metal, beep-booping electronic, imitating human form and function? C3PO? Technically this would be a humanoid, not a robot; sci-fi & popular culture tend to present robots which resemble humans (iRobot, Terminator, etc), but a robot isn’t human, and has no inherent reason to do human things. Born out of meditation on this idea:
Low Tech Responsive Humanoids
These low tech responsive objects react when the user completes their circuit. The more they are used, the faster they will die. They resemble human body parts, which in no way serves their functionality, questioning the tradition of presuming robots to one day assume human form : they don’t need to. Furthermore, by questioning what qualifies a robot, one can see how they already surround us.
OBJ1 - a bisected form of a hand with an embedded vibration motor which is triggered when the two parts are put together
OBJ2 - a form suggestive of a bone, with an embedded light, wires, and battery; the light is triggered when turned over/around
What makes a robot a robot?
Carlo Ratti’s abridged definition : a sensor, a processor, and an actuator
Robot - does this bring to mind a walking, metal, beep-booping electronic, imitating human form and function? C3PO? Technically this would be a humanoid, not a robot; sci-fi & popular culture tend to present robots which resemble humans (iRobot, Terminator, etc), but a robot isn’t human, and has no inherent reason to do human things. Born out of meditation on this idea:
Low Tech Responsive Humanoids
These low tech responsive objects react when the user completes their circuit. The more they are used, the faster they will die. They resemble human body parts, which in no way serves their functionality, questioning the tradition of presuming robots to one day assume human form : they don’t need to. Furthermore, by questioning what qualifies a robot, one can see how they already surround us.
OBJ1 - a bisected form of a hand with an embedded vibration motor which is triggered when the two parts are put together
OBJ2 - a form suggestive of a bone, with an embedded light, wires, and battery; the light is triggered when turned over/around
What makes a robot a robot?
Carlo Ratti’s abridged definition : a sensor, a processor, and an actuator
Materials: concrete, brass, batteries, wire, lightbulb, vibration motor, tilt switch, resin
