Disobedient Robots

Abstract

Disobedient Robots interrogates how robots can disobey their categorization as mere extensions of the human body to become bodies with agency themselves. Rooted in the notion of desobediencia tecnológica [technological disobedience], a term coined by Ernesto Oroza, the project responds to the productive and surveillance imperatives that drive most mainstream robotics, opening space for alternative forms of making, experimentation, and collaboration. It operates as both a research platform and a theoretical framework that has inspired the artworks I have created and will continue to develop.Two works, the Dispositivo de Realidad Mutada (DRM) and the AGNS Collective, serve as central expressions of this research. Emerging through recursive processes of building, failing, and reconfiguring, they explore the idea of a robotic "voice" as it unfolds through sound, movement, and collective behavior rather than anthropomorphic imitation. The project further extends into collective practices, including the Disobedient Robots Online Platform and the II Encuentro Internacional de Robótica Artística / Desobediencias Robóticas. Taken together, these dimensions affirm robotic art as an open-ended practice for reimagining our relationships with machines.