They're going to take over the world, if you believe science fiction, so why do we keep falling for robots? Róisín Ingle talks to the man behind Ireland's first robot festival
Growing up in Sandymount, in south Dublin, Michael John Gorman was a bug-loving, clarinet-playing child. The organiser of Ireland's first robot festival only became hooked on the machines five years ago, while on a fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His automaton epiphany came when a friend introduced him to the "leg lab"; his encounter with the inhabitants of the basement laboratory - a bunch of robotic legs in various forms of mobility - laid the mechanical foundations for Save the Robots, which begins in Temple Bar, in Dublin, on Wednesday.
"The leg lab was a strange and wonderful place," he says. (Robotic torsos were stored on another floor in the same building.) "The legs were being developed for practical applications such as prosthetics, but there was an awful lot of creative playing, too."
After reading physics and philosophy at Oxford University - and debating the links between art and science with David Hockney - Gorman went on to teach courses in science, technology and society at Stanford. "It was a great experience, because I had complete freedom to create whatever courses I wanted," he says. "If you ever want to get to know about something, teach a course on it, because that's the best way to learn.
"People have this idea of robots - the science-fiction idea, anyway - of them being this perfect race who will eventually take over the world, but it's an idea that is constantly being turned on its head," he says.
Dirk the Electric Tramp, a project that will form part of the festival, is a good example. Dirk will be pushing his shopping trolley around Dublin for two days at the beginning of July. "You might see this character gliding along and do a double take," he says. "We often don't notice the marginalised in society. With Dirk you will want to take a second look." The festival also includes a breed of "feral dogs" that will be unleashed on the streets to sniff out toxic chemicals, and OOZ, remote-controlled ducks that will be interact with real ducks in St Stephen's Green.
The festival's name plays with the notion of robots as a replacement for human labour or a potential threat to human existence, depicting them instead as an endangered species that need to be protected.
"The idea of robots as slaves that might one day rebel is a possibility that has made a rich topic for creators of science fiction," says Gorman. "Science is always coming together with fiction; there has always been that dialogue there. A lot of robotics is about developing feelings for machines, and that's something we are not always comfortable with.
"A car company has created a multimillion- dollar trumpet-playing robot to advertise their product. It might not be useful, but people can develop an emotional attachment to such creations," he says. This explains the Tamagotchi craze and the irritation we can feel with Microsoft's "helpful" paperclip character. "In Japan there is an 84-year-old man whose sole companion is a robotic seal. I once taught a course on robotic babies at Stanford, and the first thing the students did was throw the babies against the wall to see what would happen. The emotions are not always positive," he laughs. "I like the way robots provoke human responses. We can't help giving them human characteristics, and each one has a story of its own."
In 1738, a French engineer called Jacques de Vaucanson built a mechanical duck that could flap its wings, stand up and sit down, preen and drink water. It also went to the toilet after eating, emitting a smelly pellet that astonished people who queued for hours to catch a glimpse. The exhibition explores everything from de Vaucanson's "defecating duck" to the Terminator.
"Both artists and scientists are people who have managed to keep playing into their adult lives when most of us stop playing as children," says Gorman. "I think that's why bringing art and science together in a festival like this is so interesting."
Save the Robots runs from Wednesday until September 30th at the Ark Children's Cultural Centre and Filmbase, in Temple Bar; it is open from 10.30am to 5.30pm, Tuesdays to Sundays. Tickets cost €8.50 (concessions €6.50) from www.robots.ie or 01-6707788