FckngRobots
We designed a product line consisting of individual parts for love
robots, which critically questions the topic of beauty ideals and exchangeability within a future everyday scenario.
We designed a product line consisting of individual parts for love
robots, which critically questions the topic of beauty ideals and exchangeability within a future everyday scenario.
Fcking_robots is a Critical Design project, which is not intended to offer a solution. It is supposed to draw attention to the issue of "love robots" and inspire discussions. It is a journey into a future scenario, in which it is part of everyday life that people form emotional and physical bonds with humanoid robots, see them as companions and friends and become intimate with them. In a speculative scenario, the project deals with possible effects of love robots on society. Due to current trends, which can be observed in the media context, the scenario is situated in the realm of the ever faster changing ideals of beauty and in the realm of interchangeability.
In the following, we use the term »love robot« instead of »sex robot« because we noticed during the research, that it is often not primarily about intercourse but also about emotional relationships. The term »love robot« includes both.
In 2018, the first humanoid "sex" robot with weak AI was introduced to the market (Realbotics, USA). For some years now, the trend has been towards life-size, technically equipped sex robots, as some people tend to build emotional and physical bonds with these Realdolls. But even with products like the conventional robot vacuum cleaner, most people build a kind of amicable relationship. Already today, in countries like China or Japan, there is an increasing tendency towards such human-machine relationships. Progress in robotics and artificial intelligence is leading to even more lifelike humanoid dolls that can already move. The love robot of the future will be able to respond to its partner through language, movement and facial expressions - just like the human role model.
Discourse We discussed the following questions during the research phase: What will sex with robots do to our beauty ideals? Can people differentiate between real sex and robot sex?, What is intimacy and how could it change in the way of having sex?, Could a sex robot help people with mental or physical problems?, What happens to the used, old sex robots? Could we have a bigger waste problem then nowadays?, Will our relationship values change?, Will it lead to social isolation?, …
We have come up with some concepts for an exhibition scenario, including the use of the Crazy-8 method. We decided to use a conceivable everyday scenario in order to address the user emotionally and to make the speculative scenario tangible for the viewer, since most people can identify with a drugstore context.
The result of this project is the brand »PA[R]TS«, it is located in a drugstore market context. Within this brand, we designed different product lines, which distribute different exchange and extension components for love robots. The product lines range from a cheap to an ecological, to special and limited versions. The product range includes a spectrum from conventional parts, such as interchangeable eye colors and lips to private parts like genitals in different sizes and products in Sci-fi style. With the project, an installation was designed, which represents a shelf system in a drugstore, equipped with packaging, testers and advertising.
The product range alludes in particular to the points of criticism, the ever faster changing ideals of beauty and the possible interchangeability of partners and their characteristics. The aim is to show the difference between robots and humans through their modularity and to make clear that, this interchangeability can lead to even more diverse and faster beauty ideals. The scenario was designed to be provocative but as neutral as possible in order to create an incentive for discussion and discourse.
We have no idea what having
sex with robots might do to us.
The project "Fcking Robots" aims to raise awareness of the fact that today's trends contribute to tomorrow's everyday situations. The current and future developments of robots in the porn industry are to be made transparent in order to make them discussable in society. Only if an awareness within this topic is created, it is possible to develop future scenarios and to critically question them. Society must be able to prepare itself today for the future of tomorrow. Thus, the future can be steered by present decisions into a desirable direction.
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