Upcoming Events
Research seminar with Yaron Shyldkrot 'Misbehaving Machines: Performing Robots and AI Narratives'
The Immersive Experiences lab is delighted to host a research seminar with Yaron Shyldkrot. The seminar will be held at the James Arnott Theatre in the Gilmorehill Centre.
This paper explores how contemporary performance and digital practices unsettle dominant imaginaries of robots and artificial intelligence. As these technologies advance rapidly, common representations continue to blur the boundaries between science and fiction. Despite their cultural saturation, AI and robotic systems are still largely framed as either compliant tools or looming threats. These figures are shaped by persistent anthropomorphic fantasies and economies of speculative fear. In response, I foreground moments of malfunction, error, and unpredictability. Such “misbehaviours” are approached as productive glitches that disrupt the fantasies driving AI development and media hype. The paper then probes some of these enduring myths by examining how recent theatre and digital performance, sound art, and screen-based works mobilise portrayals of robots and AI, resisting familiar depictions in order to foster alternative understandings of technological projects.