SHErobots: Ecologies of Care
Year: 2024
Organisers: Dr. Dagmar Reinhardt (USYD), Dr. Lian Loke (USYD), and Dr. Deborah Turnbull Tillman (UNSW)
Partners: USYD, UNSW, and TU Delft
Date: 12 February to 30 May 2024
Location: TU Delft Library
The exhibition –in conjunction with the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales–explores women who robot (she ‘robots’, a verb), using robotics within the broader context of ecologies, as multi-species and environmental entanglements, encompassing care for both humans and non-humans.
Ecologies of Care marks the second installment of a SHEexhibition spotlighting women who are at the forefront of contemporary robotics. The first was SHErobots: Tool, Toy, Companion exhibition (Tin Sheds, Sydney, 2022).
Both exhibitions feature a female and female-led international network of pioneering and emerging artists, designers, architects, and researchers in robotics. Their collective work challenges and reimagines the prevailing narrative of male-dominated STEM professions, infusing feminist principles into their creative and research endeavours.
SHErobots embrace the challenge of ‘making trouble’
The exhibition is composed of three core themes: Strange Bodies, Systems Care, and Materialities Reset. These showcase thought-provoking works that provide insight into our evolving understanding of these complex dynamics, with art videos, process videos, physical objects fabricated for and by robots, customised end effectors for robots, robot bodies and origin stories of research, art and design.
Charged with the power to disrupt norms and redefine collaboration, women in the realm of SHErobots embrace the challenge of 'making trouble’, leading a revolutionary exploration of technology, ecology, and care to reshape our collective future.