Robots Cannot Lie: Performative Parasites of Robot-Human Theatre

TY - GEN

T1 - Robots Cannot Lie

T2 - Performative Parasites of Robot-Human Theatre

AU - Borggreen, Gunhild

PY - 2014/12

Y1 - 2014/12

N2 - The presentation reflects on theories of performative speech acts from the British philosopher of language J.L. Austin's 'How To Do Things With Words' (based on a series of lectures in the 1950s). Using Austin's notion of 'parasitic' language of an actor on the stage as a starting point, the paper analyses the Japanese Robot-Human Theatre production 'Hataraku Watashi' (I, Worker) by Hirata Oriza and Ishiguro Hiroshi from 2008 as a site for investigating the complex layers of intention, effect and cultural conventions in human-robot interaction. Linking the fiction of the stage production to laboratory testing that include robots in simulated real-life situations, the notion of how robots 'lie' are discussed in terms of different types of participants: theatre audiences and test persons. The presentation will focus on how the robot acts 'parasitic' upon normal circumstances and thus points out the troubled notions of 'normal' or 'natural' in robot-human interaction, as well as in human-human interaction.

AB - The presentation reflects on theories of performative speech acts from the British philosopher of language J.L. Austin's 'How To Do Things With Words' (based on a series of lectures in the 1950s). Using Austin's notion of 'parasitic' language of an actor on the stage as a starting point, the paper analyses the Japanese Robot-Human Theatre production 'Hataraku Watashi' (I, Worker) by Hirata Oriza and Ishiguro Hiroshi from 2008 as a site for investigating the complex layers of intention, effect and cultural conventions in human-robot interaction. Linking the fiction of the stage production to laboratory testing that include robots in simulated real-life situations, the notion of how robots 'lie' are discussed in terms of different types of participants: theatre audiences and test persons. The presentation will focus on how the robot acts 'parasitic' upon normal circumstances and thus points out the troubled notions of 'normal' or 'natural' in robot-human interaction, as well as in human-human interaction.

M3 - Article in proceedings

SN - 9781614994794

SP - 157

EP - 163

BT - Sociable Robots and the Future of Social Relations

A2 - Seibt, Johanna

A2 - Hakli, Raul

A2 - Nørskov, Marco

PB - IOS Press

ER -