VOLTA: Saso Sedlacek

Beggar Robot is a robot for the materially deprived and is constructed entirely from old computer hardware and a few spare parts that were obtained at no cost. As a low-tech, friendly device, it advocates three main ideas in contemporary activism. It is (A) a surrogate agency created for a world in which the marginalized such as impoverished individuals and families, refugees and asylum seekers, elderly people, disabled people, and those hidden from the public view, will never step onto the street to beg, except in the most dire of circumstances. The robot has access to areas normally off-limits to beggars, such as shopping malls and community events, where the richer members of society more often frequent. The hypothesis is that

this part of society is only able to show some sympathy towards the marginalized if they communicate from a safe distance and via a technological interface. The project tests and exploits the advantages of robotic interface by bringing his Beggar Robot to public spaces in different countries and adapting it to the local context and local language, to beg in the name of the poor.

Sašo Sedlaček, Beggar Robot 1.0, 2006, Interactive sculpture, mix media, photo by Hiromitsu Murakami, Courtesy of the artist and Galerija Škuc