Pint of Science festival 2019 - Creative Reactions, created in response to the talk by Dr Josie Hughes, Cambridge University - From piano playing to lettuce peeling: designing robots to compete with humans.

Touch can be slight, ephemeral and precious; or forceful, resisted. Taking the passive pressing movement of Josie Hughes’s robotic hand as a starting point, Tiina has created delicate marks, traces of the touches made by her fingers, here tipped with charcoal. She has experimented with this movement over and over, also testing different media including ink and silver clay. These repetitive actions gave time to wonder about the boundaries of touch, the red lines, and the repercussions of this in the wider world. We touch and are touched at the same time.


After the event I was able to visit Josie and the robot hand. Whilst the robot hand couldn't hold the charcoal itself, we were able to tape pieces to its fingers. The hand moved in ways I hadn't expected, and produced quite architectural drawings.