#3 Elena Knox(Australia)

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Why should service robots be beautiful?

Elena Knox's first solo exhibition in Japan is currently being held in Tokyo. The show comprises six video works featuring a 'fembot', which is a robot with the appearance of a beautiful woman.


                                  Occupation

The robot displayed onscreen is developed by renowned roboticist Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) and was permitted for use in Knox's works.

The videos created by the Australian artist, collectively titled "Actroid Series I", have already been partially revealed in 11 countries including Italy, Germany, Taiwan, and Egypt. However, this Japanese exhibition allows visitors to view the entire series in one sitting.

According to Knox, the title of her exhibition, The Female is Future, is a linguistic reversal of the famous feminist slogan The Future is Female, coined in New York in 1972. The original slogan aimed at an arguably utopian society where no one, including women, would be excluded from collective decision-making. Knox intentionally reverses it here because "in a way, these female-appearing robots are beings of the future, and people often have an optimistic image of robots that is utopian, yet the future they represent differs from the utopia envisioned by 70s feminism". With advances in technology, service robots will likely replace part of the "auxiliary work" that humans currently perform. But they do not replace it neutrally or even necessarily progressively. “Many service robots have a female appearance, which reflects our society wherein many auxiliary jobs are still performed by women", the artist explains.

In a work titled "Occupation", a fembot with pink hair, seemingly going through airport immigration procedures, speaks her thoughts about a document on which she is required to write her occupation. "I want to be an aircraft engineer. I want to be an archaeologist. I want to be an architect..." The scene is of immigration: across national borders, or perhaps a humanoid moving into the human world. "All the potential occupations that the fembot lists alphabetically are in male-dominated fields. This robot seems female; if an incoming ‘male’ robot said the same things, people might react differently", Knox contends. 

The fembots in the videos all have a pleasant appearance and behave in a gentle manner. "Robots are designed to be liked by both men and women. But many continue to reflect our societies’ fixed ideas about how women should be. I wanted people to realize this through viewing my work." The original feminist slogan The Future is Female is currently experiencing a revival in parts of America, influenced by movements like #MeToo. Knox, who also actively produces work using AI, adds in conclusion: "I personally support feminism. However, the future is complicated to predict. I feel that science is advancing faster than human political evolution, and thus may become the primary game-changer in society."

The elaborately crafted fembots appear as though they have emotions. They look comical and yet eerie when observed closely, as if they are voicing the emotions of humans who can't be certain about the future.

                                              
Elena Knox is a media artist, born in Australia where she received her Ph.D. in Media Art in 2015. She has presented works in the field of communication media focusing on themes including gender and cognition. Currently, she is producing artworks using robots and AI systems at institutions supported by Waseda University and Osaka University.

All photo rights reserved by Elena Knox

July 18, 2018



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