Hunger asks audiences to relationally understand robotics through the lens of desire and desperation. At its centre is dog, an AI-powered humanoid robot without ocular sensors, that uses a localised mesh network and olfaction to conceptualise physical space and boundaries. Initially, dog will twitch and gesture, as it processes its environment, slowly building a relationship to both the space and also its audience.
Dog will then begin patrolling the crowds, weaving through the tiered seating of the audience, over bags and boots, alternating between crawling and standing upright, inspecting its audience and demonstrating a robotic capacity to see beyond the visual, navigating through smells and physical touch. Upon selecting a participant, they will be ushered to the central platform. Actors that refuse this call may be forced through pacification, inviting audiences to witness the struggles of robotics through forced participation.
Once on the stage, actors are encouraged to cook for dog, thus helping it understand intimate forms of human communication through taste and scent. If the meal is satisfactory, dog is then programmed to replicate the meal through olfaction alone, recreating the exact smell of the dish. Actors then must serve the dish to other participants, bringing dog into rituals of collective caretaking and learning.
The piece evokes lost human traditions of care, through the mediums of data and exchange, replicating and entangling participants in networks of responsibility and compliance through compassion.
23.02.2026 - hunger