New Yorkers rescue cardboard robots

06 June 2009 | 03:51:52 PM | Source: Sonya Gee SBS

tweenbot_0606_B_140509463

The cardboard robots rely on human assistance to reach their destination (Kacie Kinzer)

New Yorkers have dispelled the brash and busy reputation of their city by stopping to help out wayward cardboard robots.

The friendly looking cardboard creatures, with simple features and wide smiles travel in a straight line, propelled by a basic motor. The robots or 'tweenbots' as the creator calls them, are part of a social study by New Yorker Kacie Kinzer.

In her experiments conducted with the Tweenbots, Kinzer aimed to test whether the human-like objects could co-exist in society and challenge the way individuals interact with their surroundings.

Each robot was had a flag attached to it, specifying a far away destination and Kinzer was surprised to discover after extensive experimentation that each robot was eventually guided by an informal army of observant pedestrians to their goals.

The journey of the fragile robots was documented and video footage shows a variety of helpers, from those only willing to use their feet to guide the creatures along, to girls who crouched down to inspect and help the robots on their way, to a man who said out loud "You can't go that way, it's toward the road."

Kinzer is currently working on a new breed of carboard robots, which will be released onto the streets of New York City as part of a new study.

 

top

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1023841 [headline] => New Yorkers rescue cardboard robots [abstract] => New Yorkers have dispelled the brash and busy reputation of their city by stopping to help out wayward cardboard robots. [keywords] => tweenbots, robots, New York [content] =>

New Yorkers have dispelled the brash and busy reputation of their city by stopping to help out wayward cardboard robots.

The friendly looking cardboard creatures, with simple features and wide smiles travel in a straight line, propelled by a basic motor. The robots or 'tweenbots' as the creator calls them, are part of a social study by New Yorker Kacie Kinzer.

In her experiments conducted with the Tweenbots, Kinzer aimed to test whether the human-like objects could co-exist in society and challenge the way individuals interact with their surroundings.

Each robot was had a flag attached to it, specifying a far away destination and Kinzer was surprised to discover after extensive experimentation that each robot was eventually guided by an informal army of observant pedestrians to their goals.

The journey of the fragile robots was documented and video footage shows a variety of helpers, from those only willing to use their feet to guide the creatures along, to girls who crouched down to inspect and help the robots on their way, to a man who said out loud "You can't go that way, it's toward the road."

Kinzer is currently working on a new breed of carboard robots, which will be released onto the streets of New York City as part of a new study.

 

[start_date] => 06 June 2009 | 03:51:52 PM [comments_allowed] => 0 [source] => Sonya Gee SBS [commentCount] => 0 [video] => [image] => Array ( [caption] => The cardboard robots rely on human assistance to reach their destination (Kacie Kinzer) [useRegularImage] => 1 [media_library_id] => 80941 [site_id] => 1 [media_library_group_id] => 0 [media_usage_id] => 0 [filename] => site_1_rand_140509463_tweenbot_0606_b.jpg [title] => tweenbot_0606_B_140509463 [description] => file:site_1_rand_140509463_tweenbot_0606_b.jpg [type] => [height] => 338 [width] => 450 [source] => [video_hi] => [video_lo] => [section] => [display_order] => 0 [create_date] => 2009-06-06 16:06:37 [active] => 1 [media_usage] => Article Large [usageWidth] => 300 [usageHeight] => 225 ) [imagePath] => http://media.sbs.com.au/news/upload_media/ [audio] => [reporter] => [relatedLinks] => Array ( ) [relatedArticles] => [comments] => Array ( ) ) [winston] => test )