Having friends over is nice. On this particular occasion, Louis Philippe Demers visited Aalborg with his Blind Robot. Together we set up an exhibition featuring the two robots in similar circumstances. Both robots would invite the audience to interact by the simple means of an empty chair in front of each robot.

Whenever the invitation was accepted by a member of the audience, the robots would elicit information from the visitor. the Blind robot by touching, and Geminoid DK by engaging in a scripted conversation.

After hours, when the exhibition was closed, we decided to play a little and have the robots meet close and personal. A memorable day.

This was the first invitation we received to be exhibited at an art museum. The IMOCA (Ireland’s Museum of Contemporary Art) curator asked us to be part of a conference and exhibition on identity and presence. The topic was close to home, but in the beginning I failed to see why the Geminoid should exhibited at an art museum. Later, that became crystal clear to me.

At the exhibition, we set up a dual display: a fully functional control station for remotely operating the android and the android himself. The idea was that visitors could take turns operating and controlling the robot. It was an installation.

Kate Bornstein (transgender author and speaker) was also invited to the event. At a memorable moment she sat at the control station and suddenly said: ‘Now I get to be a man again.’