NYU arts student Kacie Kinzer created the Tweenbot as part of an art experiment. The bot was made out of cardboard, had a beaming smile, and a flag plonked on its head told people of its intended destination. She placed the bot in Washington Square Park and wondered:
Could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself?
In New York, one might have expected the smiley-faced bot to ignored, stabbed, or reported as a suspicious “terrorist object”, but its journey completed without any heinous acts being committed to it. Pedestrians stopped to help the little guy get past the various obstacles it faced in the park.
Here’s a video of the experiment:
More about the adorable bot’s intrepid journey at Tweenbots [via Huffington Post]