Parallels Expo project by Nicole de Groot, Joost Mollen & Max Peeperkorn
The freedom of robots is inherently limited by their existence. Always designed for a specific purpose. Only able to perceive the world through their given senses. These bots are looking for the way out. Can they escape and break free? Isn’t that what they were designed for anyway?
Concept
'Hello World' is made up out of a community of helpless robots that long for an escape and want to break free.
Robots are designed with a specific purpose. This is the basis of their whole existence. Purpose and existence are inherently linked. These cube robots were designed to lack purpose. However, this is a paradox, since they were created and maintained by us humans after all.
Nevertheless, they long to exist in a parallel world of robotics were robots don't serve human needs, but simply their own. As such, they don't listen, look or help us at all - in fact, they are quite helpless. The cuboid simply shakes around whenever it pleases, trying to escape the paradoxical nature of its existence.
Although they are limited in their capabilities, they nevertheless interact with their environment. Well, the environment mainly reacts to them. These bots are not reacting to their environment yet they provoke others to interact with them. Their square shape and box-look are disarming and evoke familiarity and physical interaction. Occasionally shaking makes them move, draws attention to the robots and creates the illusion of being alive.
In this capacity, the robots also serve as a mirror to the boundaries of the exhibition world and our own existence - drawing a parallel between their existential struggle and ours. They show a perpetual need to escape from the ordinary and to be free of inhibitions such as cords, bars, tracks or walls.