talks
& media

 Contact Peter van der Putten or Maarten Lamers for speaking, interviewing or publication requests.

Exhibitions

• Critters on Stage, a performance-based version of Critters, was part of the Night of Discoveries, Sept 14, 2024.

• A new edition of Critters took place during the Days of Art and Science and the Night of Discoveries, Sept 14-16 2023, Leiden, the Netherlands (teaser)

• We curated the Critters expo at Beyond Human & Brave New World, Leiden, the Netherlands, Nov 4-10, 2019 [Leiden University announcement and photo impression]

Courses

• MSc course on Artificial Creatures, Media Technology, Leiden University (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 course website with student projects).

• On-demand course on Robots & Religion for high school students (in Dutch), together with Elpine de Boer. Read more about here experiences with respect to this collaboration here. Request access for presenting the lesson here, for a preview see here.

• This research originated from a 2008 workshop on Artificial Creatures at Leiden University.

Podcasts, Video & Radio

• Jason Teunissen. Finding inspiration. December 2020.

• Peter van der Putten, interview Petra Gemeinboeck and Rob Saunders, SAILS Event The Future of AI is Human, December 15, 2020

• Sander Pleij. MENS #25, Vrij Nederland podcast interview (Spotify link), September 2020.

• Tom Cheesewright. Building Emotional Robots. Talk about Tomorrow podcast (Spotify link), June 2020

• Kenneth A. Azurin. ROBOPOD: Part1, Eccentric Electric, Ars Leonardocast podcast. Interview recorded at Ars Electronica 2018, Feb 28, 2019

• Leiden Plus Podcast Interview (in Dutch)

• Sleutelstad radio interview (in Dutch), March 8 2017

Media & Publications

• Bots Like You. Alumni-magazine of student organization "De Leidsche Flesch", Leiden University, Volume 14, December 15 2023.

• Five tips for Museum Night Leiden, Leiden University, 2023.

• Short report (with photos) of our lecture for Pre-University College Leiden, Boerhaave en Bots , March 10 2023.

• Gerry van der List. Kunstmatige religie: een robot als geestelijke. EW Magazine, November 30, 2021. 

• Anika van de Wijngaard. Robots in de kerk, synagoge of tempel. Leidsch Dagblad, November 2021. Also in Haarlems Dagblad, Noordhollands Dagblad, Gooi en Eemlander, Ijmuider Courant [in Dutch]. Plus a short university post on this publication in English here.

• Media Technology reserchers presenting at Brave New World conference, Leiden University, November 2021.

• Peter van der Putten. Do you love me? CustomerFirst, February 2021 [in Dutch]

• Some praise from our Rector Magnificus #proud, October 2020

• Bots Like You, Leiden University, October 2020

• RobotFirst: Bots zoals wij. CustomerFirst, Feb 3 2020

• Critters: Wanneer is technologie een wezen? Rocking Robots, Nov 1, 2019

• Robots to 'be part of religious rituals and to mourn dead' as AI based faiths grow. Interview in Daily Star, Feb 16, 2019

• Er is dit weekend meer dan ADE. Parool, October 18, 2018

• What robots can teach us about humans, Leiden University article, October 23, 2018

• Peter van der Putten en Maarten H. Lamers. Bots Like You, Terugkoppeling, periodiek van de Nederlandse Vereniging voor het Onderwijs in de Natuurwetenschappen 27(1): pp 14-16, 2018 (get PDF here).

Research

• Maarten Lamers and Peter van der Putten. Helpless by Design: Helplessness as a Feature. The Imperfectly Relatable Robot (ImpRR23): An interdisciplinary workshop on the role of failure in HRI. Workshop at HRI 2023 (teaser video)

• Joost Mollen, Peter van der Putten, and Kate Darling, Bonding with a Couchsurfing Robot: The Impact of Common Locus on Human-Robot Bonding In-the-wild. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, Vol 12, Issue 1. March2023. doi: 10.1145/356370210.1145/3563702

• Donna Schreuter, Peter van der Putten, and Maarten H. Lamers, Trust Me on This One: Conforming to Conversational Assistants. Minds and Machines: Journal for Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy and Cognitive Science Vol. 31, p. 535–562, 2021. doi: 10.1007/s11023-021-09581-8

• Maarten H. Lamers & Fons J. Verbeek. Human-Robot Personal Relationships. HRPR: International Conference on Human-Robot Personal Relationships, HRPR 2010, Leiden, The Netherlands, June 23-24, 2010, Revised Selected Papers

Talks

• Workshop Exploring the gap between embodied cognition and generative AI. Leiden University, May 22, 2025.

• Descartes College, Utrecht University, March 4, 2025

• Conflux Festival, Rotterdam, September 21, 2024

• Lecture within the HCI Lab, The Hague University of Applied Science, June 3 2024

• Leiden University Wetenschapscongres (Science conference)) for high school students (ICLON), May 29, 2024

• Pre-University College Den Haag, February 29 2024

• Keyholder dinner, Leiden University Fund, October 6 2023

• Lecture within the HCI Lab, The Hague University of Applied Science, June 9 2023

• Museumnacht Leiden, Japanmuseum Sieboldhuis, June 3, 2023. Four presentations, including one for children and one "late night edition" (adults only)

• The Imperfectly Relatable Robot (ImpRR23): An interdisciplinary workshop on the role of failure in HRI, workshop at HRI 2023, Stockholm, March 13 2023

• Leiden University Pre-University College, Museum Boerhaave, March 6, 2023

• Leiden University Pre-University College Den Haag, February 16, 2023

• Talk in the workshop The Future of Muslim Tech: Prospects and Challenges. Lorentz Center, Leiden University, Jan 18, 2023

• Kunnen wij leren van Japanse robots?, Museum Jeugduniversiteit, Japanmuseum Sieboldhuis, Leiden, Nov 13, 2022

• Meesters van ons lot: kwetsbaarheid versus maakbaarheid (Recording in Dutch). Studium Generale & De Ekklesia. Part of Leiden European City of Science 2022 and Art Science Week 2022. Leiden, Sept 13, 2022

• HCI Technologies course, User Experience Design & Communication and Multimedia Design programs, Haagse Hogeschool, Jun 10, 2022

• De Leidsche Flesch, study association for Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics and Computer Science, Leiden University, Feb 23, 2022

• Religious Robots, Brave New World, Nov 9, 2021

• Probus 83 Bilthoven, September 22, 2021

• Annual PhD Day, Interactive Intelligence Group, TU Delft / Delft University of Technology, May 25, 2021

• Interfaculty Congress "We are the Future", Leiden University, April 23, 2021

• ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado Boulder, April 20, 2021

• Design Art Technology program, ArtEZ University of the Arts (Arnhem) Feb 25, 2021 (organized by an attendee of the original 2008 workshop).

• Smart Culture Conference, Leiden, Nov 6, 2019

• Rijksoverheid Beheer de Toekomst 2019 event, Den Haag, June 20, 2019

• Performing Robots Conference: Dialogues between Theater and Robotics (invited opening keynote, abstract, video summary conference) . May 23, 2019.

• Kidscollege Kunnen robots bang, stout of nieuwsgierig zijn?, Bibliotheek Katwijk, March 20, 2019.

• AVS Congres 2019 (opening keynote), Nieuwegein, March 15 2019.

• Jonge Democraten, AI: Nemen robots de wereld over? Utrecht, Nov 19, 2018.

• Brave New World conference, Leiden, Nov 8-9, 2018. Leiden University article, Leiden+ podcast interview in Dutch.

• Kidscollege Zijn robots ook bang, stout of nieuwsgierig?, Centrale Bibliotheek Utrecht, Nov 4, 2018.

• Robot Night, The Man Machine, Robot Show, EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam. Nov 1, 2018. Check this video about the event, and why we think The Lift is a nice prime example of robots in movies.

• Fotodok Taferelen #18, Oct 31, Utrecht.

• Three Ways How Robots Will Kill Us All. The Man Machine Opening Night, EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam, Oct 18, 2018. Dutch national newspaper Het Parool picked it up here.

• Kunnen robots bang, stout of nieuwsgierig zijn? (Can robots be scared, naughty or curious?). Museum Jeugduniversiteit at Museum Speelklok, Utrecht, Oct 14, 2018.

• Leiden Science Family Day, Weekend van de Wetenschap, Leiden University. Robots zoals jij. Leiden, Oct 6, 2018.

• ICTU Inspiratiedag "No Guts. No Digital Glory", Sep 27, 2018. Short report here, video at 50 secs (in Dutch).

• Utrechtse Communicatie Kring, Sep 14, 2018.

• Leonardo Slam (improvised slam on bots like you, pics), Ars Electronica Festival, Linz Austria. Sep 8, 2018.

• Crossover Conference: Gelukkig Oud Worden, Utrecht, June 27, 2018.

• NRC Live: Artificial Intelligence, Amsterdam, June 21, 2018.

• HKU University of the Arts, internal lecture for faculty, Utrecht, May 31, 2018.

• Betatechniekdag, Harderwijk, March 29, 2018.

• Presentation at Exponential Technologies workshop, The Camp, Aix-en-Provence, France, 2017.

• Presentation (video) at ABN AMRO Innovation Friday, Amsterdam, March 24 2017 (incl Q&A).

• Studium Generale Talk Leiden University, Feb 25 2017.

Bots Like You originated as a Studium Generale talk for Leiden University, in collaboration with the Nederlands Studenten Kamerkoor (NSK). An even earlier precursor was the Artificial Creatures workshop that we ran for the Media Technology Program of Leiden University in April and May 2008.

Unless noted differently, the pictures below may be used with attribution to the photographer