Masters of Arts (MA)
University of Art and Design Helsinki

Robots don’t cry?
Social Machines track, Fri Oct 8th at 10:40

"In my talk I will present my artwork Robots don’t cry? that addresses relationships between human, technology, and emotions.

The idea of emotional robots was born when I started out asking myself: Can machines be affective and responsive in social and emotional situations? Can robots cry? My artwork is my personal and tentative response to these questions. The artwork consists of slowly moving and singing robot balls. Songs presented are modern interpretations of ancient Finno-Ugrian crying songs. These songs were traditionally performed in social situations such as funerals and weddings. Cry singing is a form of story-telling where singer combines his/her emotions to improvised melody. Crying songs presented are made especially for this work and are based on personal subjects chosen by the singers. What will happen when these emotional stories face the feelings and the emotions of the audience? What will be the role of the machine in this context?

Creating an evocative and emotional machine is a daunting task, because one can hardly achieve anything that is as emotional as a living human being. However, we may experience them as they would be on the border between inanimate and animate. My interest is not focused on what kind of social machines there will be in the future, but instead what we will be like? Who we are becoming in our increasingly intimacy with our machines? What machines that simulate emotions does to us as people?

Addressing these questions via art gives me ample possibility to look beyond how science and technology are altering our culture. Technology has much potential, but I hope that we do not lose the sight of the fact that the current directions are not inevitable or pre-determined. Things might develop in different paths if different decisions are taken. I see that one of the roles for art is to raise questions and help to find new perspectives to relevant topics by including commentary, irony and critique"

Outi Aho holds a degree of Masters of Arts (MA) from University of Art and Design Helsinki. She has also graduated from Tampere University of Technology, Finland. Before moving to art career she has worked several years in technology industry in various positions in research and development. Outi Aho holds several international patents related to telecommunication systems.

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