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As part of the ongoing project Robots in Residence the Goethe-Institut Montreal will be hosting a NAO-Robot during six months from February to July. During this time, the Goethe-Institut offers one residence for artists to work closely with the NAO during a period of 8 consecutive weeks.
NAO 6 is now the sixth generation of the interactive humanoid robot NAO, developed by the Japanese French company SoftBank Robotics. It is in use worldwide and serves primarily as a research object for educational institutions. Its 25 degrees of movement make communication with NAO seem particularly natural. The robot has various sensors as well as modules for speech, object and face recognition and speaks several languages. Since 2020 two of these NAO robots have traveled to various Goethe-Instituts, mainly in Europe. On-site, the robots were supervised and further programmed by coders and artists, taking local issues and circumstances into account.
Robots in Residence aims to examine and illustrate the relationship between humans and machines with a focus on communication in a variety of cultural contexts. During each residency the robots learn new skills and carry their newly acquired knowledge and skills further afield, picking up more and more aspects that, taken together, can capture and spark a multifaceted debate on artificial intelligence.
Interdisciplinary students, researchers, artists and teams are invited to submit proposals for research-creation projects that broaden the skillset of the NAO, take local contexts into account, and inspire a multifaceted debate on artificial intelligence.
Selected applicants will have 8 weeks to work closely with the NAO robot – from May 1st to June 30th, 2023 – and will receive between 4,000 and 6,000 CAD (depending on network affiliation) in funding to produce an interactive artistic program that broadens the NAOs skillset but also inspires social, technical-philosophical questions and bring to life visions for future humanmachine interactions
All applicants must be members of Milieux and/or Hexagram.
Local teams will be able to work with the robots independently, in their research institution, at the facilities provided by Milieux Institute, Hexagram, Eastern Bloc or at the Goethe-Institut. As part of a research-creation project, participants will develop an interactive and artistic program/project presentation for and with the NAO that illustrates their questions and/or reasonings about human-machine interactions.
→ NAO_Call for proposals Robot in Residence_EN
→ NAO_Call for proposals Robot in Residence_FR