Created by Filipe Vilas-Boas and Paul Coudamy, The Punishment (2017) is an installation in which an industrial robot executes a preventive punishment for its possible future disobedience. In reference to Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (and set to a score of playing children – see video below), it writes “I must not hurt humans” over and over again.

Interested in our fear and fascination with robots, Filipe teamed up with the architect and designer Paul Coudamy in order to raise questions regarding automation – without being a naive tech utopist or a reluctant technophobe.

Technologies are now merging at high speed, notably robotics and artificial intelligence. It raises a lot of questions about man-machine relation. How automated do we want our world, our body to be? What physical, moral and legal framework should we use? What consequences for human life? Which post-work society shall we build? Shouldn’t the school reinvent itself? At the turn of the century, questions related to automation are popping up in everyone’s mind. We will have to answers them collectively, if possible.

The Punishment was created using Rhino 3D and Grasshopper.

Project Page | Filipe Vilas-Boas | Paul Coudamy