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DIAS Wicked Problems

Upcoming events

Talk: Techno, Art, and Music Robots

With Moritz Simon Geist

When and where

8 October 2025
11:00-12:15
DIAS Auditorium, SDU Odense

Moritz Simon Geist is a German artist and robotics engineer, well-known for his wildly viral videos like the "Popcorn Jazz Robot" and the giant drum robot "MR-808." With a background in electrical engineering and a passion for hands-on sound creation, Geist's work is driven by a desire to interact physically with music. His robotic instruments are crafted using advanced technologies such as 3D printing, CNC milling, and laser cutting and have been shown all around the world.

In this talk, Geist will give insight into his art practice, share how he stopped working with human musicians and started working with music robots, and explain why AI music robots will not replace human musicians (soon).

READ MORE ABOUT THE EVENT HERE

Stage setup with electronic equipment and instruments enveloped in blue and white smoke. The text 'TECHNO, ART AND MUSIC ROBOTS' appears at the top, with 'Moritz Simon Geist' below it. The DIAS (Danish Institute for Advanced Study) logo is visible in the bottom right corner​
The talk will be followed by a workshop with invited speakers Matthias Wieser, Andrea Tesanovic, Jonas Jørgensen. See below.

Organizer: Kathrin Maurer, Professor for Culture and Technology at SDU, and Leader for Center of Culture and Technology at SDU
Contact: kamau@sdu.dk

This event is supported by IRELTS, DIAS, and the Centre for Culture and Technology.

Workshop: Interacting Robots in Everyday Lives: Artistic Perspectives

With Matthias Wieser, Fara Peluso, Andrea Tešanović, and Jonas Jørgensen

When and where

8 October 2025
13:00-16:00
DIAS Seminar Room, SDU Odense

Sponsored by the DIAS Cluster on Wicked Problems “Interacting Robots in Everyday Life and the Transformation of Society”, Center for Culture and Technology at SDU, Biomachines Project sponsored by The Velux Foundations.

Matthias Wieser

On Flying and Sonic Robots: Interacting Bodies and Sonic Atmospheres in Human-Robot Interaction

This talk examines human-robot interaction through a sociological lens, drawing on preliminary find-ings from a research project on the use of (autoomous) drones in the performing arts. It investigates what unfolds when drones become co-performers, turning the stage into a site of technoscientific ex-perimentation. The work of Moritz Geist with sonic robots offers a parallel exploration of robotic agency in musical contexts. Framed by the material turn in the humanities and social sciences, the talk addresses questions of (non)human agency. The presentation investigates how heterogeneous bodies—human and robotic—co-create space, sound, and experience in the performing arts and considers how artistic practices become laboratories for rethinking everyday encounters with autonomous systems.

Matthias Wieser is Associate Professor at the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. Trained in Sociology and Cultural Studies his research focuses on media technologies as assemblages of heterogenous materialities and unruly practices. Currently he is working on an interdisciplinary research project that explores the theatre as a laboratory for human-drone interaction funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Fara Peluso

Cyborg Identities: Living Machines and Otherness

Living machines in art and design extend to other forms of intelligence by mimicking, employing, and drawing attention to neglected companions. They also embrace new materialism and feminist posthumanist theories. These machines embody cyborg identities, which, as Haraway (1991) explains, 'do not dream of communities on the model of the organic family but rather encourage a plasticity of identity to highlight the socially imposed limitations'. They therefore contribute to the development of a posthuman coexistence.

Fara Peluso is a bioartist, speculative designer and researcher. With a strong interest in Biology, she pursues a deep research on living organisms like microalgae, lichen and fungi, enquiring into their poetics and agency through a speculative design methodology. Peluso’s work raises critical questions like: how the design of new tools can tell the story of possible future scenarios, the quality of our lives, atti-tudes and choices. Since 2024, she has been researching at the University of Art and Design Karlsruhe for the Living Library project at the Bio Design Lab. In 2022 she was artist in residency at Ars Electroni-ca, regional S+T#ARTS center Linz, for her collaborative project ‚Circular Records‘ with Kat Austen about LP bioplastic manufacturing.

Andrea Tešanović

Entangled on Stage: The Robot as Performer, The Robot as Performance

In the intersection of art and technology, performing with robots presents a unique fascination, as the role of the performer is distributed between human and machine. This shared authorship and agency reflect a deeper, more intricate relationship—one that mirrors the evolving entanglements between humans and robots, humans and AI, and other life-simulating technologies in everyday life. Centering on the robot’s corporeality and the concept of techno-parenthood, the research explores the layered dynamics of these relationships and the collaborative artistic agency embedded in robotic media art performance, specifically highlighting impactful soft robotic performance.

Andrea Tesanovic is a PhD researcher whose work emerges at the nexus of robotics, science fiction literature, media art and performance, and the sociology of life-like technologies. Her work combines art theory, literary analysis and practice-based research methods, and she is developing theoretical paradigms for furthering research into robotics and robotic media art and performance. Apart from research, she has worked at Ars Electronica, United Nations, and an AI-based simulation software startup developing digital twins.

Jonas Jørgensen 

The Sounds of Softness: Robot Materialities, Imaginaries, and Sound
In this short talk, I will discuss elements of our work on the robot SONŌ. SONŌ began its life as a re-search prototype created to explore the potential of adding sound to soft robotics (robotics technolo-gies constructed from pliable and elastic materials). The work started from a simple and open ques-tion - what does a soft robot sound like? It branched off to involve a diverse set of activities including studying cultural sonic imaginaries, conducting empirical human-robot interaction studies, and developing an exhibited robotic artwork.

Jonas Jørgensen is Associate Professor at the SDU Biorobotics (University of Southern Denmark) and co-director of the SDU Soft Robotics research laboratory. Originally trained as a physicist and an art historian, his research has pioneered the study of aesthetic aspects of soft robotics technology and human interaction with soft robots. In addition to his academic work, Jonas has an artistic practice with robotic artworks exhibited widely internationally. He currently leads the “Robot Touch” research network funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (2024-2026). www.jonasjoergensen.org

Organizer: Kathrin Maurer, Professor for Culture and Technology at SDU, and Leader for Center of Culture and Technology at SDU
Contact: kamau@sdu.dk

Past events

  • Robot technologies are increasingly becoming a part of human everyday lives. While some robots still only exist in visions, and may never be possible to realize in practice, they nevertheless shape how ‘we humans’ expect robots to become part of ‘our’ everyday lives.

    This workshop explores the mismatches between expectations of current visions and the ongoing uptake of everyday robot technologies. On a societal level, individuals easily understand the visions but might feel alienated by existing technologies. On a political level, it becomes a dilemma to regulate across this gap between visions and realizations, and on an economic level, the emerging technologies risk that their commercialization fails.This workshop will explore and map (the existence and nature of) how these mismatches emerge and are articulated, also asking how they stay in place for longer time spans. The goal is not only to produce a map, but also impulses for how to overcome the mismatches.

    Two invited speakers will present their work in robotics, namely Assistant Prof. Benjamin Lipp and Associate Prof. Jonas Jørgensen. They will address the identified mismatches from each of their perspectives, creating the space for sparking an interdisciplinary discussion between all group members on the topic of the identified mismatches and how to tackle them. Results of the workshop will be captured and documented in note form, to be developed into a position paper at a later stage.

  • When and where: 15 November 2024 at SDU Campus Odense

    SFF will investigate the practicality of speculative science fiction as thought experiments of potential futures and future technologies, but also of the way in which engineering is influenced by science fiction, consciously or unconsciously. In this, SFF also asks: to what extent is there a need to proactively influence legislation based on imagined technology instead of reactively addressing legal problems connected to new technology that has already been introduced? 

    More than 50 participants attended this workshop. 

    Read more

Last Updated 11.07.2025