Critical Objects: Assignment 2 - Robot Dog Disabler Kit

Boston Dynamics' Spot, example

Topic: Robotic Policing & Warfare

Attribute: Charming

Device: Humor

Mood: Skepticism

Discourse we intend to spark

In what ways is the design of robots used to mask the goals of their makers and their true capabilities? Robot dogs or humanoid robots don’t share the same qualities you enjoy about your dog or humans, so think critically about what you’re actually being shown < Halo Effect >. This ties into how design + manufacturing changes when the robots have military goals versus being a personal device or work tool.

If it is a dog, then let’s try treating it as such and see what we find.

Introducing the Robot Dog Accessory Kit

Foster your next robot dog with care. This starter pack includes dog treats, a collar, an emergency tool and a map so you can socialize your robot dog.

In the spirit of humor, the dog treats are actually magnets (packaged in a jar), the collar is fuzzy and colorful to contrast with the robot’s design and materiality, the emergency tool is a hammer and the map points to areas heavy with robot dogs, highlighting where they’ve been problematic historically.

Copy for the map:

Your new four-legged friend needs space to roam and play. Luckily, there is a growing list of groups around the globe capturing funds and land to build a world where your doggy can make friends and run off-leash with limited oversight. Make sure, no matter where you go, to always be considerate and pick up after your new best friend!

Critical Framing

By thinking about the ways in which you’d care for your robot dog in line with how you’d treat a real dog, we find that perhaps both dog shaped beings aren’t all that similar, provoking the question of how.
Bodily Politics: Treating the robot dog like a dressed-up pet highlights how society normalizes control over bodies—animal, human, or machine.

Process Limitations:

Access to a robot dog for testing. The open source models aren’t the ones to be weary of.

Critical Object Limitations:

The people who would acquire this aren’t the same people who are owners and within the circles of a robot dog. This would work as a performance, perhaps not as an object to be manufactured or even placed in a museum - unless it’s a museum that chooses to have one walking around or which creates an activity designed for visitors to put the collar on the dog.

Design hypotheses to test

Form factor: Collar vs Vest; which collar or wearable element fits with the robot dogs we want to target;
For the map element, find if the research or historical data available corroborates the framing of our project and what data visualization techniques are best communicate it.
Do we need semantic packaging, as described by the Discursive Design reading? It says we don’t? TBD

Content validations

How do magnets actually affect robot dogs (Research)
How to name it in a way that’s in line with current events and that frames the message. For example, is this a disaster kit on how to euthanize a robot dog or do we call it an accessory kit and let users or spectactors draw their own conclusions.

Alternative framing for project could be “At-home disaster kit on how to put down a robot dog which includes several devices in a carrying case to protect yourself or end a robot dog”.

Does the map have spots where robot dogs have been sighted or where they’ve been problematic?

Other ideas that resonated but did not fit our chosen attribute included wearable for robot dog with approachable and playful design with a signal jammer. With a signal jammer, the privacy & surveillance message would have a bigger impact: By obstructing communications, we call attention to constant watching and monitoring in public spaces.

Next steps:

Choosing relevant robot dogs as models to which this kit is for - seeing the most used ones for the questionable ends.

Need to show on the box or instructions what models of dogs this kit is suitable for. This happens in parallell with prototyping for attaching to different models or at least solves the issue that this could otherwise be for all robot dogs. The way these models are shown will point to the aesthetic point we want to invoke for conversation.

Find packaging printing methods that are standard use in the industry but accessible to one-offs - seeing that a learning goal of this project is learning how to fabricate packaging properly. [ Inês ]

Create labels for the every day items.

Order prototyping materials as shown in class for the wearable item.

Inês ordered worbla, chicago screws and a roll of corrugated cardboard.

Prototype hammer. Ideally all the items would have consistent branding and materials, but if not, we can create adhesive labeling. [ Meghna ]

Fullish list of work

In progress

Question to Pedro

If we understood the Art <> Social <> Science/Tech framework correctly, then this project would score high on the Science/Tech axis due to the topic regardless of being low tech.
This project will be low tech. No electronics at all. The skills we selected to learn through this project are fabrication, 3D modelling and packaging development. We’d like to check if this is ok or if you have other learning outcomes you require.

References

stpp.fordschool.umich.edu Robot Dogs for Surveillance and Policing: Overview and Policy Recommendations

Classmate Critique, Cody

What would the relationship would look like with the dog? Dogs were primarily killing machines too before they were companions.

Robot Dogs feel very half baked technology.

K9 unit has K9s.

People form attachments to objects. When they’re inanimate, but even more so when they have some form of motion.

K9s are operated by commands, based on an algorithm (if defined as a set of rules) dictated by a human, they’re also dangerous, and robot dogs are too operated by “commands”.