A GROUNDBREAKING exhibition at a Scottish museum will ask “big questions” about the role of robots in our everyday lives.
Hello, Robot: Design Between Human and Machine opens next week at V&A Dundee – the only UK showing of an international collaboration with Germany’s Vitra Design Museum, MAK Vienna and Design Museum Gent.
Highlights of the show, which explores the role of designers as “mediators” between humans and machines, include an original R2-D2 on loan from George Lucas’s archives, an exoskeleton which allows paralysed people to walk and Paro, a mechanised baby seal currently helping elderly people around the world.
At a time when science fiction and media reports are awash with warnings about how robots will steal our jobs, relationships and possibly even our lives, the provocative exhibition encourages us to examine our preconceptions about robots and to remember the role of human agency in making the future.
In “Three things women need to know for the year 2030”, a short film made this past week for the BBC, renowned futurologist Amy Webb said increasing the numbers of women and people of colour in tech is key to a fairer future and urged us to consider how the choices we make today “collectively create the future”.
READ MORE: Original R2-D2 Star Wars robot comes to V&A Dundee exhibition
Similar aspirations are central to V&A Dundee’s show, which curator Kirsty Hassard says comes at a pivotal time.
“Robots are part of our everyday and not a moment goes by without new developments in robotic technology,” she says. “How and where we encounter robots, the sort of relationships we form with them and how we interact with them – or they with us – is no longer the exclusive domain of engineers and IT experts. Designers are now often at the centre of these decisions.
“This is an exciting time and the right moment to be asking big questions about the role robots should and will play in all our lives.”
By setting out to challenge our ideas around robots, the curator says Hello, Robot is unlike any exhibition which has come before.
“I was so passionate to work on this because it looks at robots and robotics in an entirely different way,” Hassard says.
“Rather than take a chronological view and look at how robots have changed over the years, it’s organised by themes. As you go through the exhibition you’re asked to consider 14 questions such as: ‘Have you ever met a robot?’ and ‘How do you feel about robots taking jobs?’.
“Throughout, your views on robotics are evaluated and examined. You’re very much made to feel that you’re taken on a journey.”
In the first of four sections, Hello, Robot examines the role of popular culture in shaping our assumptions, with exhibits including an original poster advertising Fritz Lang’s 1926 epic Metropolis – one of the first depictions of a robot in cinema, toy robots from the 1950s and 1960s and an original R2-D2 from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
READ MORE: Dundee V&A celebrates birthday as visitor numbers soar past estimates
“Usually the first time we’ve met a robot is through some form of science fiction,” says Hassard. “Often it’s very much this extreme view, of robots either destroying or helping us. There’s no in-between. I think that has massively shaped human perceptions of what robotics is and has shaped our attitudes.”
SECTION two looks at the impact of robotics on industry and how fears of machines rendering human workers redundant stretch back three centuries to the start of the industrial revolution.
Rather than framing robots as enemies, exhibits such as YuMi, the “world’s first collaborative robot”, look at how machines can improve life for human workers.
Subsequent sections explore robots already a part of daily life, such as Paro, a therapeutic companion currently used to help elderly people and those with dementia in 30 countries around the planet, household drones and digital helpers such as Alexa and Siri.
The gender bias written into the latter is a key issue for the future of artificial intelligence (AI), says Hassard, who cites recent Unesco report I’d Blush If I Could.
The phrase refers to the original response of compliant, female-voiced Alexa to sexist abuse.
Whether we respond by making Alexa give as good as she gets, render virtual assistants completely gender neutral, or make sure there’s more girls and women designing such systems in the first place, are questions all up for grabs.
“The ethics around human relationships with AI is something we need to address now,” says Hassard.
Indeed, in just the couple of years since Hello, Robot was first shown in 2017, things have already moved on.
Earlier this year, a newer version of an exoskeleton on show in the exhibition allowed a paralysed 30-year-old to walk again, using signals from the young man’s brain.
“A lot of the objects on show have become a reality or have been updated, that’s how quickly things are changing,” says Hassard.
HIGHLIGHTS
Metropolis original poster
Fritz Lang’s 1926 adaptation of Thea von Harbou’s book sees Brigitte Helm star as Maria, one of the first robots depicted in film.
1950s toy robot
Japan led the market in toy robots in the 1950s and 60s, with this 1957 “directional robot” programmed to change course when it hit an obstacle.
R2-D2
An original 1977 prop from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, on loan from the George Lucas archives.
Paro
Paro is a therapeutic robot modelled on a baby seal intended to provide comfort and companionship for elderly people and those with dementia.
All Is Full Of Love
Android protagonists passionately embrace while being assembled in the video to Bjork’s 1999 hit by Chris Cunningham, a milestone in the history of computer animation.
Friendly drones
Intended for everyday home use, Ted Hunt, Luke Sturgeon and Hiroki Yokoyama’s playfully-designed drones are very different from the threatening, militarist machines we are used to seeing.
YuMi
Billed as the “world’s first collaborative robot”, ABB’s 2015 YuMi is designed to work alongside humans, helping to ease the strain of monotonous tasks.
Spider Dress
Anouk Wipprecht’s hi-tech dress registers the speed with which someone is approaching the wearer, with robotic spider legs reaching out if someone gets too close.
Hello, Robot: Design Between Human and Machine: November 2 to February 9, V&A Dundee, 10am to 5pm, £6 to £12. Tel: 01382 411 611.
www.vam.ac.uk/dundee
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel