London has gone robot mad. What's happening to us?
Robots are taking over the city. From the Science Museum to the Barbican, metal men are everywhere
Robot exhibition, Science Museum 2017
If you've spent a day at the Science Museum's Robot exhibition recently (and if not, why not?) you will have discovered that the humans have been fascinated by the prospect of humanoid robots hundreds of years, long before we had artificial intelligence or even electricity.
People used to obsess over the idea of mechanical people right back when we wore rags, had wooden teeth, and thought that a lever and some moving cogs was the cutting edge of technological advancement. Dentistry may have changed quite a lot since then, but if London today is anything to go by, our love for robotics has not.
The past year has been all about robot-themed escapism for grown-ups: whether it's watching episodes of Westworld on Sky Atlantic, or developing a secret crush no the helpers in Humans on Channel4 or - worst of all - taking to twitter to vent anger at the prospect of a woman to be the next Doctor to do battle with the daleks, we've been talking about robots.
So, we all love robots, will always love robots and have always loved robots. But what accounts for our sudden enflamed passions that have sent a deluge of robot themed events raining down upon our capital this month?
There was the Robots exhibition at the science museum: a collection of over 100 humanoid robots, from a 16th-century mechanical monk, through sci-fi cyborgs and modern-day research lab automatons.
And then there was the Robot Zoo at the Horniman museum. This exhibition was aimed at teaching children about nature through the use of robotics (how weird) with larger than life mechanical animals playing, feeding and changing colour like their real-life might.
A Giraffe at the Horniman Museum
If that wasn't enough robots for one month in one city, The Barbican is hosting a performance of (can you guess) Robot, by Blanca Li Company. This is a multimedia spectacle exploring the relationship between humans and human-inspired machines. What is going on?
The Horniman Museum's exhibition uses robots to teach youngsters about animal nature, the Science Museum tracks the development of robots from moving cogs to thinking minds and the Barbican asks us whether robots and humans will one day be interchangeable and exchangeable (as dancers, but that's a slippery slope).
It's time we decided who the new Doctor is going to be as soon as possible. The robots are taking over, and we need someone to help us.
People used to obsess over the idea of mechanical people right back when we wore rags, had wooden teeth, and thought that a lever and some moving cogs was the cutting edge of technological advancement. Dentistry may have changed quite a lot since then, but if London today is anything to go by, our love for robotics has not.
The past year has been all about robot-themed escapism for grown-ups: whether it's watching episodes of Westworld on Sky Atlantic, or developing a secret crush no the helpers in Humans on Channel4 or - worst of all - taking to twitter to vent anger at the prospect of a woman to be the next Doctor to do battle with the daleks, we've been talking about robots.
So, we all love robots, will always love robots and have always loved robots. But what accounts for our sudden enflamed passions that have sent a deluge of robot themed events raining down upon our capital this month?
There was the Robots exhibition at the science museum: a collection of over 100 humanoid robots, from a 16th-century mechanical monk, through sci-fi cyborgs and modern-day research lab automatons.
And then there was the Robot Zoo at the Horniman museum. This exhibition was aimed at teaching children about nature through the use of robotics (how weird) with larger than life mechanical animals playing, feeding and changing colour like their real-life might.
A Giraffe at the Horniman Museum
If that wasn't enough robots for one month in one city, The Barbican is hosting a performance of (can you guess) Robot, by Blanca Li Company. This is a multimedia spectacle exploring the relationship between humans and human-inspired machines. What is going on?
The Horniman Museum's exhibition uses robots to teach youngsters about animal nature, the Science Museum tracks the development of robots from moving cogs to thinking minds and the Barbican asks us whether robots and humans will one day be interchangeable and exchangeable (as dancers, but that's a slippery slope).
It's time we decided who the new Doctor is going to be as soon as possible. The robots are taking over, and we need someone to help us.
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