Elsbeth wrote the essay “A robot in its natural habitat: The performativity of a believable robot character.” (2023) during her master’s programme. In this essay, she argued why the concept of performativityis essential to consider when designing a believable robot character. To support this argument, she analysed two case studies in completely different contexts. The first involved the NAO robot, designed to function as a social robot, and the second was a robot featured in the exhibition Robots in Captivity (2021) by artist Bram Ellens.
Through her analysis, Elsbeth demonstrates the relevance of a performative approach to creating a believable character concept, showing how important context is for perceiving the credibility of a robot character and interpreting its dramatic structure.
Robot NAO, 2022. (Photo: Priscilla Fisher)
Robots in captivity, 2021. (Photo: Vincent Guth)
