ROBOTIC WORLDS

At the dawn of the Age of Robots, Die Neue Sammlung is dedicating an exhibition to these relatively young contemporaries of humankind. For more than 100 years now, robots have shaped our ideas about future and parallel worlds, and in the last few years they’ve become a firm fixture of everyday life. The experts suggest that the areas where they can be used will increase rapidly over the coming years.

At this historic turning point, the exhibition takes a look at what humans imagine robots to be as well as their real form and function. Exhibits include outstanding robots and robot toy figures from around 1970 to the present day: They show both the human fantasies and utopian worlds associated with robots, as well as the various shapes and designs of real, functional robots.

The toy figures tend to be pretty dissimilar to humans and animals, appearing as powerful automatons capable of superhuman deeds. In reality, robots come in many more shapes and sizes, varying greatly depending on the area of application. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, household helpers and real toy robots were mostly designed in animal form in order to assign them to the familiar human domain of pets and farm animals. More recently, some service robots have also been given a more neutral look. The humanoid robots of the last decade through to the present, meanwhile, are coming increasingly to resemble humans, and they are likewise taking over human tasks – talking to us, doing household chores, and even becoming automated nurses and doctors.

Milestones in robot development from the museum’s own holdings are on display, as well as spectacular loans of life-size humanoid robots from the Institute of Cognitive Systems at the Technical University of Munich that complement our collection. As a result, the show covers the different fields of robotics – be it in the home, industry, emergency services, communications, and care, or even research and education.

The exhibition is being created in cooperation with Prof. Gordon Cheng and the Institute of Cognitive Systems at the Technical University of Munich.

Robotic Worlds is part of the redesign of the exhibition tour on the occasion of the Die Neue Sammlung centenary, which brings new themes into focus. The spatial concept of a production line was developed by Munich-based design studio OHA (Office Heinzelmann Ayadi).