Anthropocentrism and the staging of robots

Louis-Philippe Demers

Jana Horakova

pp. 434-450

in: Randy Adams, Steve Gibson, Stefan Müller Arisona (eds), Transdisciplinary digital art. sound, vision and the new screen, Berlin, Springer, 2008

Abstract

By investigating the representations of the human throughout history of the robots, we analyze robotic performances from a theatrical audience pragmatic point of view. Hence, this interpretation of robots as performers, or staged robots, involves an act of suspension of disbelief as a first and constitutive condition of theatrical reality. As an early analysis of robotic performances and robots as performers, this paper focuses on the notions of anthropomorphism and anthropopathy.