There are some great images from the DI 2011 show in Dunne and Raby’s Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunneandraby/

The DI class of 2011 site is now live. Amazing work from a great bunch of people.

http://di11.rca.ac.uk/

What should a robot smell like? I have augmented three existing industrial robots with ‘sweat glands’. Each uses a specific property of human sub-conscious behaviour in response to a chemical stimulus. The contrast between the physical anti-anthropomorphic nature of the machines and the olfactory anthropomorphism highlights the absurd nature of the trickery at play in all anthropomorphism.

Robots have no need for annually recurring birthdays, but would celebrating their anniversaries of creation enable us to empathise with them to a greater degree? This is a short video portrait exploring how a robot might celebrate such a ‘birthday’.

Shows and Dates
For the first time since the 2007 Great Exhibition, Show RCA presents the work of 431 graduating art and design students simultaneously, from 24 June to 3 July 2011.

At Show Battersea, Fine Art students exhibit in the Painting and Sculpture buildings at the RCA’s SW11 campus and in the Testbed 1 Gallery nearby.

Applied Art, Architecture, Communications, Design, Fashion & Textiles and Humanities come together at Show Kensington in a remarkable gathering of design talent.

Show Fashion – when graduates present their final collections in two catwalks shows – took place on 1 June, to great acclaim.

For details, see Visitor Information.

How might the sensory experience of interacting with a humanoid robot be made more authentic? This short film explores the reality of a humanoid robot that produces a fear scented ‘sweat’ on its palms in anticipation of meeting a human for the first time. This ‘sweat’ is formulated to defuse any fear felt by the human on first contact and enhance the encounter.