Roboexotica

Roboexotica (sometimes spelled: Roböxotica) is an annual festival where scientists, researchers, computer experts and artists from all over the world build cocktail robots and discuss technological innovation, futurology and science fiction. Roboexotica is also an ironic attempt to criticize techno-triumphalism and to dissect technological hypes.

The festival is co-produced by Shifz and monochrom, two Vienna-based art collectives, and supported by the 'Bureau for Philosophy' (of the Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna). The festival is usually held in the end of November or early December.

Overview

The annual international festival consists of an exhibition, a conference, social events, and the ACRA (Annual Cocktail Robot Award).

The exhibition presents robots that can mix cocktails, serve cocktails, consume cocktails, have bar conversations, light or smoke cigarettes or manage to impress the jury with (Quote Roboexotica website) "other achievements in the sector of cocktail culture".

History

In 1999 Magnus Wurzer and Chris Veigl (Shifz) started to present cocktail robots at the small independent Viennese cultur and art space VEKKS.[1] In 2002 the group monochrom (Johannes Grenzfurthner, Günther Friesinger, Franz Ablinger, etc.) teamed up with them and the small event became a big international festival presented at Vienna's Museumsquartier.

Roboexotica was presented at Cyberpipe (Ljubljana) in 2006, at Maker Faire (San Francisco) and RoboGames (San Francisco) in 2007.

In 2008 a catalogue titled Roboexotica was published, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the festival. The book features reflections on the festival and presents statements by former participants including Cory Doctorow, Douglas Repetto, Bre Pettis, [V._Vale], and [Karen Marcelo].

A smaller show called "Roboexotica USA" was held in San Francisco in 2008 and 2009. It was organized by monochrom and Shifz and was well received by the press. In 2010 it was decided to rename the San Francisco-based cocktail robot event "Barbot," and Barbot events were held in San Franicsco in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.

Reception

Roboexotica has been featured on Slashdot, Wired News, Reuters, CNN and blogs like Boing Boing, Geek Entertainment XTV and New Scientist.

References

  1. ↑ "V.E.K.K.S". Vekks.yi.org. Retrieved 2012-03-29.

Additional sources

External links