Visions of Our Communal Dreams (work-in-process) by Michael Takeo Magruder

Michael Takeo Magruder

Join us in a near future where robots, avatars and telepresence form part of an exciting new reality.
 From pervasive networked gaming to robots that teach, touch, care or scare, Robots and Avatars already co-habit the world in which we work and play. Robots and Avatars is an intercultural, intergenerational and interdisciplinary exploration of a near future world consisting of collaborations between robots, avatars, virtual worlds, telepresence and real time presence within creative places, work spaces, cultural environments, interactive entertainment and play space.

“I love the way Robots and Avatars is bringing together a beautiful diversity of people, exploring new paradigms, with unexpected and inspiring results. Exciting! Brave! Fun!”

Pear Urushima, Marketing Guru, Apple. Inc

The Robots and Avatars Exhibition will feature cutting edge art pieces, including three Commissions with the National Theatre “Sociable Asymmetry”, “The Blind Robot” and “Visions of our Communal Dreams”. It will present a mixture of robotics, online and wearable projects, immersive installations, performances and films. Attached to the Exhibition are high-quality debates and workshops, playfully didactic experiences that will enable visitors of all ages and levels to interact and engage with digital technologies. The Robots and Avatars Jury has selected a number of works to make up the 3 exhibitions in the project through a high level and largely spread out Call for Proposal process. The exhibition will present at FACT, Liverpool (UK) where it will premiere from 16 March to 27 May 2012; AltArt, Cluj-Napoca (Romania) in June/July 2012 and KIBLA (Slovenia) in 2013. Read more about the exhibition at FACT here. “The Robots & Avatars project has been one of the first to bring robotics and avatar professionals together and provide a creative atmosphere with artists and designers. This is such a wonderfully interdisciplinary grouping that I feel compelled and proud to support it.”

Noel Sharkey, Professor of AI and Robotics at the University of Sheffield (Department of Computer Science) and EPSRC Senior Media Fellow (2004–2009).

The Robots and Avatars exhibition in the UK is co-produced in the UK by body>data>space (London) and FACT (Liverpool) in collaboration with the National Theatre (London). European co-organisers are KIBLA (Maribor/Slovenia) and AltArt (Cluj Napoca/Romania). With the support of the Culture programme of the European Union, this project was conceived by lead producer body>data>space in association with NESTA. Find the Selected Projects’ list more here

Visions of Our Communal Dreams (work-in-process) by Michael Takeo Magruder with Drew Baker, Erik Fleming and David Steele, 2012. Image C 2012 Takeo.