Robots today can do backflips, mimic humans, be sexual companions, get citizenship, and conduct orchestras. But for (almost) the past decade, Giles’ Walker’s robots have been doing something a little more unconventional – pole-dancing.

The UK-based artist designed robots that can pole-dance, not to mention disc-jockey too – back in 2008. And because the robots keep travelling and showing up at events around the world, videos of their performance are still in circulation.

The video above was posted on Twitter with the caption, “Them Robots comin for EVERYBODY job”. In 2017, it’s no surprise that people are reacting strongly to it, considering the perception that robots and Artificial Intelligence could take away a lot of jobs from humans. Including those of pole-dancers and DJs?

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The robots, however, had nothing to do with sexualisation or automation when they were created and were instead designed as a commentary on surveillance and voyeurism.

Walker told The Verge, “Britain was becoming the most surveilled society in the world. So I was playing with this idea of voyeurism, and who has the power in that relationship; whether it’s the voyeur or the person being watched.”

His robots also addressed news at that time about an Iraq dossier published by the British government, which was allegedly “sexed up”. If a document could be sexed up, thought Walker, so could CCTVs. “That’s how I got to these mechanical peeping toms. It was a mingling of all those things,” he said.

Though the robots look complex, they’re simply made from mannequins, windscreen wiper motors and simple loops. Walker’s other art, too, takes on similar themes, like his robotic “The Last Supper” (video below)”.

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