ROBORIADA is a video game-like performance, created by artists Boryana Dragoeva and Oleg Mavromatti, where two Robo-Sapienses (human beings that pretend to be robots) fight for their right to live.

RS responds only to limited electronic sensors: it has a camera instead of eyes, it hears only the signal coming from the headphones and is manipulated by a human user, who gives it simple and limited commands which the RS has to follow strictly.

Each Robo-Sapiens has a button on its torso, when the button of one of them is pushed by the other, RS is deactivated and “dies”. The judge activates it again and for a new round.

With the performance, SUPERNOVA underlines its concept of preventing cruelty to robots and set up laws for equal rights of robots and humans. Supernova is against the cruelty of human beings, who produce military or fighting robots that kill each other on the sake of their human-master’s pleasure or satisfaction of his ambitions to rule the world.

The artists behind Roboriada put in the same robot-slave position a human being, hoping to produce a therapeutic effect.

The next stage of the project will be to make teams of trained pairs of RS and users, as well as to invite different volunteers to be RS and to share their experience in front of the camera.

(Thanks to Christian !)

Related: reconciling our relationship with robots.