Niki Passath: Zoe (II)
Even though the robotic artist Niki Passath is coming from Vienna in Austria, only five hours driving away, it is his first time in the Czech Capital, Prague. On his journey, where he was traveling with train most of the way, he carried 13 of his Zoe-bots to the exhibition, which is a part of the 5th ENTER: DATAPOLIS Biennale.
Zoe:
Niki is not his real name. It is a nick-name that is related to
Nicolas, and it had caused a lot of fun or less fun situations in
real life for him. F.ex has his girlfriend sometimes trouble to
explain which Niki she is taking about, when she's talking with
others. Is it Niki, her boyfriend, or Niki, a female member of the
family. And sometimes, when people is writing a mail to Niki, they
begin the mail with Ms. Passath, which is something he's not so
pleased of. But on the other hand, it once gave him an invitation
to be a part of a feminist art festival!
Passath is also playing a little bit with this double-standard meanings of the name Zoe, in his work that is carrying the same name. For him it isn't so normal that the non-gender robots got a female humanised name, and in the movie Killing Zoe, Julie Delphy, who's playing Zoe having two 'roles' in the movie - as a prostitute at night, and as a bankassistent during day. Zoe is also a reference to Zoo, but is it a robot-zoo, or a human-zoo, or is a combination of both?
The enviroment and the human-robot interactions it takes places at, is an important part of Zoe. In Prague there was some black strokes on the floor, which reminds you of a handball or a basketball court. If there was not so many people at the exhibition, many visitors only cross that line, after have talked with Niki Passath first. But if there were many people at the exhibition, or the robots crossed the line on the floor, people started to interact with the robots, which you can watch some examples on in the video.
Niki Passath and the nearby
future:
Right now Niki Passath has got an exhibition
together with Yukihiro Taguchi in Vienna at Das Weisse
Haus until the 28th of May 2011. And he is working on a project
with rockets as you can read more on here.
Links
Homepage:
http://niki.xarch.at/wordpress/
Niki Passath: Presentation:
/english/vive-les-robots!-interviews/niki-passath
Niki Passath: Zoe (I):
/english/vive-les-robots!-cases/enter-datapolis-5th-artscitech-biennale-prague/niki-passath-zoe-%28i%29
Similar case
stories:
RoboLift
The Robotinity Exhibition at Ars Electronica
Center
Futur En Seine: Follow the Robots
[source: Vive Les Robots!]
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Niki Passath likes to talk with the visitors who's coming to watch and interact with his work Zoe.
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The Zoe-bots had caused a playlike
situations for two visitors, who made this little performance
during the opening of the exhibition at the ENTER: DATAPOLIS
Biennale in Prague.