December 2023   Based on the previous sprint focused on the voice and the sound of KUKA robots, this event brought into play questions of literary form and performance of literary texts. This larger theme was addressed together with Sjaan Flikweert, our guest and spoken word artist, who prepared three poems and two sequences…

  December 2023   Bram Ellens’ current project in progress introduced questions about voice and sound as the key topic of this ELRAT sprint. Specifically, Ellens works on a project involving the translation of a book, De robot van de romelmarkt, into a theatre play under the name Recycled Robot (Dragt 1967; see fig. 1). Moreover, since the theatre…

  December 2023 This ELRAT sprint was focused on manual (real-time) manipulation of the KUKA robots in the context of the performing arts, which brings about specific concerns of safety. Firstly, manual manipulation via a remote control was pointed out in the preceding sprint for the possibility of robot expressing a more thoughtful movement or…

    December 2023   In this sprint event of the ELRAT Lab, the key guest, circus artist and performer Daniel Simu, joined to engage in an interaction with a KUKA robot. In response to the performance of Simu and the KUKA, the general aim had been to address the theme of human-robot interaction with…

    December 2023   The overarching theme in which the ELRAT group is engaged in the first half of 2023-2024 is interaction; specifically, between KUKA robotics and puppetry as well as other entities. In the first sprint event of this year, we explored how a puppet named Madama Butterfly interacts with two KUKA robotic…

  The Dramaturgy for Devices project aims at designing sustained relationships with robots and other smart technologies. It will explore the value of the performing arts as a motor for innovation and reflection in a high-tech society and demonstrate how collaboration with the performing arts can be a game changer regarding the development of the…

  Center Stage Robotics is a collaboration between Ulrike Quade Company, Creative Robotics (programmer Rick van Dugteren and visual artist Bram Ellens) and Utrecht University. It consists of multiple research trajectories in which we explore the possibilities and potential of industrial robots in a performative context, as well as what findings and their creative processes…

  A video documentary made by Chris Rijken about the ongoing research in the ELRAT Lab. ELRAT is an initiative of Bram Ellens, Rick van Dugteren (Creative Robotics), Ulrike Quade (Ulrike Quade Company) and Maaike Bleeker (Utrecht University).  

    Maaike Bleeker receives 2,1 million euros in funding for the project “Dramaturgy for Devices: Designing Sustained Relationships with Robots and other Smart Technologies” from the Dutch Research Agenda programme Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC). This project is a collaboration between Utrecht University, TU Delft, VU and UTwente and a great number of…

  ** Link to event: UU & Academy: Open round table AI & the Arts (SPRING Academy and Utrecht University)   This AI and the arts round table discussion opened with the question, “What does AI do to the arts?” The interdisciplinary panelists offered insightful perspectives ranging from Dastani’s work with computational modeling of emotion to…