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What? Workshop: Ritualizing Human-NAO Relations
When? June 28-29 (17:30hs-20:30hs)
Where? Milieux Institute, Concordia University
We are a trio of research-creators conducting a “robot residency” with NAO, a humanoid robot. The residency takes a critical and creative approach to understand and imagine human-machine relations, and takes the event of NAO’s visit to Montreal as an occasion to grasp this machinic being through their everyday rituals.
As part of our residency we are hosting a workshop series focused on social imagination and (re)defining the relationships we humans have with machines. In these workshops we will search for alternatives to the typical human-machine narratives of consumption of exploitation, and find ways to make them real. To guide this search we will be centering the notion of the ritual not only as a method for understanding the day-by-day reinforcement of existing relationships, but also as a way of making space for (re)conceiving new relations/interactions, a way of inhabiting a liminal space in which we can be creatively (and critically) thinking through ‘things’.
As a participant you will have the opportunity to connect and collaborate with the robot, and design interactions, moments, and experiences with NAO. Furthermore you will engage with broader questions that NAO personifies—about robots, machines and social imaginaries—with a set of hands-on making/doing activities. Throughout the workshop we will collectively produce a ‘zine that documents our discussions and creations.
The workshop is designed to take you on a journey through human-machine relations. The plan is to meet three times in the last week of June, and explore these questions through multiple approaches. We strongly encourage you to attend all three sessions if possible, so that you can participate at every stage of research-creation. However, if you can’t come to all three we still welcome you to join us for whichever sessions you are able to attend!
Day 1 : theoretical intro; introducing NAO
Day 2 : conceptual development; brainstorming; interactions
Day 3 : making session; co-producing zine
You do not need to have technical skills in order to participate in this workshop. Ultimately this is an exercise in imagination and creativity.
See you there!