On 4 March 2025, Maaike Bleeker presented the paper ‘The Human-Robot Ensemble: Designing Expressive Movements for Restaurant Service Robots’, written by Hyumin Lee, Nazli Cila, Klaas Koerten, Maaike Bleeker and Marco Rozendaal, at the HRI’25 in Melbourne. HRI’25 is the 20th edition of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. At HRI, researchers and practitioners

This Lorentz workshop explores how a performative lens can help roboticists, healthcare professionals, designers, and other academics and practitioners better understand the complexities of integrating robotics into care practices. A performative perspective approaches technology as inherently relational and frames robot capacities as expressions manifested through their appearance, motion, and behaviour within specific contexts of use,…

We invite you to the closing events of our research project, Acting Like a Robot: Theater as Testbed for the Robot Revolution, on January 30 and 31, 2025, in De Paardenkathedraal in Utrecht. In this special collaboration of Utrecht University, Ulrike Quade Company, VU Amsterdam, HKU, and SPRING Performing Arts Festival, we have spent the…

On the impact of technology on grieving On 13 December, Ulrike Quade Company invites you to an inspiring evening at Frascati Amsterdam, where two rooms will be filled with innovative programmes exploring the future of technology and theatre. How does technology influence our grieving process and the way we cherish memories? At a time when…

A multimedia show about artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnology ‘The Artificial Girlfriend’ is a unique and innovative musical piece rooted in Kazuo Ishiguro’s book ‘Klara and the Sun’. This multimedia performance combines music with AI-generated images and an AI-controlled narrator, resulting in an immersive experience for the audience. The story of ‘Klara and the Sun’…

We are delighted to invite you to attend the PhDdefense of Irene Alcubilla Troughton. She will defend her dissertation “Moving Together: A Performings Arts Approach to Human-Robot Interaction Design”. This dissertation tackles an important challenge in human-robot interaction (HRI): how to create meaningful encounters between humans and robots through movement. Traditionally, HRI has focused on…

Innovation:Lab’s prototype event CTRL+ALT+PLAY is returning! This year, on November 30th, De Paardenkathedraal, De Berenkuil, and De Snijzaal in Utrecht-Oost (Hoefijzerstraat) will once again be the platforms for technology, performing arts, and science. As Theaterkrant wrote last year: “CTRL+ALT+PLAY leaves you hungry and curious for even more space, even more depth.” Innovation:Lab is one of…

Children’s robot concert by Bram Ellens and Concertgebouw Robot artist Bram Ellens will stage the children’s concert ‘Robot van de Rommelmarkt’ (the recycled robot), a short story written by bestselling author Tonke Dragt, at Concertgebouw in January 2025. Child x robot The story (from 1971) takes place in the future. Every child is dependent on…

AI developments are moving at a rapid pace. But making AI work for the benefit of society requires going beyond technology and collaborating across disciplines and organisations. On Tuesday November 26th, the Utrecht AI Event will bring together experts from business, government, research and education. Get to know the 15 AI Labs at Utrecht University and UMC…