London Design Festival 2010
Ed Vaizey launches robot writers in Trafalgar Square to kick off Design Festival.
Eight industrial robots currently sit in the centre of Trafalgar Square waiting for instructions as part of an art installation called Outrace.
Commissioned from Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram by the organisers of the London Design Festival, Outrace enables the public to take control of the robots, which are on loan from Audi’s manufacturing line in Ingolstadt and have been equipped to write three dimensional light messages. These messages will be filmed in HD and broadcast via the Outrace website, which a global audience can also use to send messages via the robots.
Ed Vaizey, Minister for Communications, Culture and Creative Industries, will be sending the first message to Outrace at 7.45pm tonight.
“The London Design Festival showcases the city as the capital of the creative world so it is an honour to be switching on the festival’s centrepiece,” said Mr Vaizey. “The Outrace installation is exciting, technologically innovative and artistically challenging. As a worldwide audience commands the robots to write their messages, they’ll be experiencing our cutting-edge design ingenuity in action.”
Further information
- The London Design Festival runs from 18 - 26 September with over 240 participating organisations, events, launches, talks and tours.