Exhibition

Robots and Avatars – our colleagues and playmates of the future.

“The exhibition tackles the overlap between the virtual and the real worlds.” Wired

“It’s art that’s interactive and immersive.” The Guardian

Robots and Avatars Exhibition showcases the most exciting visions and innovations from international artists, designers and architects, exploring their impact on the future of work and play. Robots and Avatars departs from pop culture imagery and re-imagines these technologies for a new reality: how do we envisage our future relationships with robotic and avatar colleagues and playmates, and what point does this evolution cross our personal boundaries of what it is to be a living, feeling human being?

Robots and Avatars is a programme of work which began in 2009. It was originally conceived and produced by body>data>space who led the project through research and development into an EU Culture project involving 5 other UK and European partners.

The exhibition presents immersive experiences – from physical limbs rendered into pixels through the act of touch, collaborative landscapes stretching beyond the confines of popular gaming, to wearable and interactive technologies that guide and confound, including 3 Commissions developed in collaboration with the National Theatre: Michael Takeo Magruder and associates (UK, US)/ Visions of our Communal Dreams; Louis Philippe Demers /Processing Plant (CA, DE): The Blind Robot; Ruairi Glynn / Motive Colloquies (UK): Sociable Asymmetry.

TOURING EXHIBITION. The Robots and Avatars is touring from the UK to Slovenia and Romania with a bespoke artistic selection in each case.

‘Robots and Avatars Exhibition’ has presented at FACT, Liverpool (UK) from 16 March to 27 May 2012.Read more about the Exhibition at FACT here.

‘Robots and Avatars – UK Selection’ has presented at 12 Star Gallery (UK) from 19 to 28 September. Read more here.

‘Robots and Avatars Exhibition’ is showing at KIBLA, Maribor (Slovenia) from 5 to 30 October 2012 as part of Maribor 2012: European Capital of Culture

Robots and Avatars will tour onwards and to AltArt, Cluj-Napoca (Romania) from 13 November to 2 December 2012. Read more here.

JURY’S SELECTION. Following the ‘Robots and Avatars’ Call for Proposal launched in August 2011 for which we received just under 200 applications from 27 countries, the exhibited works were selected by the following committee of international experts, in KIBLA/Maribor in November 2011: Ghislaine Boddington (body-data-space, London, UK), Mike Stubbs (FACT, Liverpool, UK), Aleksandra Kostic (KIBLA, Maribor, Slovenia), David Sabel (Digital department of National Theatre, London, UK), Istvan Szakáts (AltArt, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Cameron Bobro (independent artist, Santa Barbara, USA) and Peter Tomaž Dobrila (Public Institute Maribor 2012 – ECC, Maribor, Slovenia). View the full Jury’s selection here.

What do the MEDIA say about the Robots and Avatars?

In 2012 ‘Robots and Avatars’ has been reaching millions of people worldwide. ‘Robots and Avatars’ has been covered in:
Top level UK, local, national and international Press TV and Radio programmes
English, Arabic, Farci, Spanish, Russian, Slovenian, Romanian
General and specialised media including Technology/Innovation, Business, Arts and Culture, Science, Education, Entertainment…

Download the Press Coverage of the Exhibition: ROBOTS and AVATARS PRESS COVERAGE

CREDIT
The Robots and Avatars exhibition is part of the RACIF EU project, coordinated by lead organiser body>data>space (London, UK) and co-organisers are KIBLA (Maribor/Slovenia) and AltArt (Cluj Napoca/Romania). In the UK, associate partners are FACT (Liverpool) and National Theatre (London). 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. Supported using public funding by the Arts Council of England.