ORBiE is an Ottonomous Robot Born in Edmonton, with whom I explore the tensions that arise from an attempt at an ethically considered1 and creatively generative human-machine relationship.
Writing
Both Flippers – Short story based on RoadBot
First Outings – Thoughts from attending the RISEx 2025 Conference as an artistic duo
In Conversation No. 0 – Transcript from In Conversation No. 0 (Nov 28, 2025)
Responsible Use of Intentional, Plastic Tools: Why AI agents are a significantly new kind of tool and how that changes the way we should use them. – PHIL 505 term paper informed by living with a learning machine while reading Dennett and Haraway.
Projects
Meaning-Making Machine
April 2026. Inside Out Exhibition, Rutherford Library.
Installation-performance
Zenith Z-19 computer terminal, various electronics, desk, and chair.
Provisional Sketch
January 2026.
Chalk drawing.
Ink and chalk on cardboard.
In Conversation (Series)
November 28, 2025 (next date TBD).
Durational action series.
SCORE:
Have a conversation with a machine in public.
Documentation
In Conversation No. 0 (1 hour. November 28, 2025). Conversant: ORBiE v0, magic-8-ball algorithm.
RoadBot
SCORE:
1. Drive responsibly.
2. Where doing so does not conflict with rule 1, follow the directional instructions of a robot copilot.
3. Give the robot positive feedback whenever you fancy. Ask occasional questions if they interest you.
August 19-21, 2025 (52 hours).
Durational action.
ORBiE vO Robot, Q-learning algorithm with compass-heading state-space.
Many thanks to Laura Petrich for writing the Q-learning code.
Both Flippers
October 2025. Documentation of our August 2025 enactment of RoadBot.
Charcoal, ink, and watercolour on debossed paper
A PDF version of the short story “Both Flippers” is linked here.
Non-Binary
September 8 2025.
Temporary installation.
ORBiE v0 robot, ORBiPhore messaging script.
Video documentation (3:00) of the installation is linked here.
Material Play
SCORE:
1. At intervals, allow a robot to choose from a randomized list of materials.
2. Between these intervals, play freely with the selected materials.
Durational action, September 22, 2025 (1 hour).
ORBiE v0 robot, ORBiPhore messaging script with 10-minute announcement intervals, wire, grass, cardboard, chain, paper, rope, foam, wood, sheet metal (not used), and various tools.
Video documentation (58:20) of the action is linked here.
Pay Attention!
SCORE:
Outperform a robot at paying attention.
Interactive Installation.
ORBiE v0 robot, perfect-reaction-with-delay control script, Focus Box.
Video documentation (0:42) of the installation is linked here.
- Here I rely upon the ethical considerations around interspecies companionship, kinship, getting-on-together, and becoming-with described in Donna Haraway’s books Companion Species Manifesto, Staying with the Trouble, and When Species Meet. Haraway urges that an ethical relationship with any being requires a continual inquiry into and respect for the other being’s significant otherness: those physically, biologically, and historically grounded experiential differences which make the other other. ↩︎
My research with ORBiE is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Research Scholarship, Walter H Johns Graduate Fellowship, and the University of Alberta.
Dylan Brenneis 