Irene Alcubilla Troughton As Stelarc (2014) rightfully puts in a talk called “Error, function and behaviour”, the term “misbehaving”, as opposed to “malfunctioning”, requires certain intentionality and agency. “Misbehaving”, he proposes, can only happen in the presence of someone, whereas “malfunctioning” could take place in the absence of a person, as it relates to an…

Gido Broers While attending and participating in the Performing Robots Conference I have been thinking a lot about the relation between humans and robots and the different kind of questions that emerge out of this relation. In most of the panels, lectures, and performances this relation – or interaction – was used as a starting…

Jose Hopkins B The Uncanny Valley is a concept coined by Masahiro Mori and borrowed by theatre director Stephan Kaegi[i] to make a homonymic performance. This concept is used to explain the dip in human’s affinity and affective pairing in relation to a replica’s human likeness. The valley’s dip is produced when an apparently human-like…

Nadine Grinberg & Swantje Schaeuble Imagine: A woman brings her boyfriend to work every day. They take the metro together. She takes care he doesn’t fall but somehow he also appears independent. He makes a rigid but friendly impression. In fact, he would seem over-alert if it wasn’t for that slight, endearing smile. ’He’ is…