Website: http://www.thecube.qut.edu.au/cube-screens/2014/robot-university.php
Developer: Christy Dena, Developer in Residence, The Cube at QUT
Robot University is a game-like environment where people of all ages engage with robots. People can command robot weapons and discover the consequences, send messages to a robot on Mars, and choose domestic items for a household robot. The Cube’s first Cube Production Residency, partnered with the Australia Council for the Arts Literature Board, was an open call opportunity to writers working within the digital landscape. Christy Dena was awarded this inaugural residency, also becoming an Adjunct Professor in the Creative Industries Faculty.
The installation is inspired by the development of war, space, and domestic robots; film and television depictions of robots; and press on human fear of robots. It aims to provoke conversation and thought about people’s attitudes towards robots in our lives now and in the future. The setting is a robot university, where people can interact with robots for training. People can interact via a user-interface to trigger robot weapon firing; select dialogue to talk to an anxious robot; select domestic objects that trigger robot activities and reveal the story of its own parents. There are also mini flying robots that track people as they pass, and people can try and catch them if they can.