Tweenbots: An Adorable Robot Experiment
April 13th, 2009
The tweenbot is an adorable cardboard robot with a flag that shows its destination. The catch is that it can only move forward, so it depends on the kindness of strangers to help it on it’s way it and avoid obstacles.
It was created by student Kacie Kinzer as an art experiment.
I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself? To answer these questions, I built robots.
What’s funny is that so many are willing to help a cardboard robot, but not so many people stop to help real people. Well, he is cute as a button.
