This last weekend, Roboexotica ^[1] – the international festival for cocktail robotics – once again took place in the Freiraum/quartier21 at Museumsquartier Vienna ^[2].

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Organized by Monochrom ^[4], SHIFZ ^[5] and the Bureau for Philosophy ^[6], the year 2008 marks the 10th anniversary of the festival, which not only centers on the obvious thematics around robots and drinking culture, but also goes along with a series of panel talks, events and shows ^[7].

One of the most interesting and current topics the talks were dealing with certainly was the future of technology and DIY culture. Under the title Back to the Future – of Utopias in Cybernetics and Robotics, international artists, theorists, technologists and hackers discussed the importance of gaining more and more knowledge about (reverse-)engineering consumer electronic products and the change our world is currently undergoing.

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The opening party of Roboexotica 2008 started off in front of the MQ, where the 25 foot tall interactive public sound installation RoboVox ^[9] by media artist Martin Bricelj, speaking out text messages it receives via SMS, was set up.

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As for the festival weekend, the exposition involved several recurrent ‘classics’ such as the Robomoji by Robert Martin or the enhanced Chassis by Jon Foote and Al Honig; as well as lots of new, shiny and superb inventions like Liquidator by recurring guest Mikhael a Crest Sator or Sloth by Kal Spelletich, only to name a few.

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In the context of Roboexotica, Monochrom’s Taugshow #17 ^[14] was dedicated to the subject, and held at Vienna’s collaborative technology/new media lab & hackerspace Metalab ^[15], featuring Mitch Altman, founder of 3ware and inventor of TV-B-Gone ^[16] and the Brain Machine ^[17]; maker/hacker/teacher/artist/podcaster/puppeteer/NYCResistor ^[18] & Thingiverse ^[19] co-founder Bre Pettis ^[20]; SF-based Geek Entertainment TV ^[21] producer, documentary filmmaker and technologist Eddie Codel ^[22], Monochrom’s artist in residence of November; and Krach der Robot ^[23], who provided the audience with noisy sounds and self-made attachable mini-antennas.

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The official closing event of the Roboexotica 2008 festival took place at the MQ on Sun, Dec. 07th, and Chris Janka ushered the evening with a very special high voltage music show, performed on a Tesla coil connected to his electric guitar, followed by the awards ceremony.

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The winners of Roboexotica 2008’s Annual Cocktail Robot Awards, ACRA v10.0 ^[27], were announced as follows:

5 ‘CLASSIC’ CATEGORIES:
Serving: Fairy Juicer (Mitch Heinrich, David Fine) and Sloth (Kal Spelletich)
Mixing: Construction Wanker and K&K Kavalier Klavier (both exhibits by students of the FH Joannum)
Conversation: Chassis (Jon Foote, Al Honig)
Fire & smoke: Temporarily suspended!
Other achievements: Rim Shot Bot (CTP) and RepRap Shotbot (Marius Kintel, Philipp Tiefenbacher, Bre Pettis)

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3 SPECIAL CATEGORIES:
Human subjugation: Gina (students of the FH Joanneum)
Most legally challenging: RoboVox (Martin Bricelj)
Reproducability: Lego Shot Bot (Anthony Fudd)

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LIMES:
Most spectacularily breaking robot: Sloth (Kal Spelletich)
Stickiest, ickiest: Globo (Johannes Grenzfurthner)
Most displaced in cocktail environment: Drill-pro-mill (students of the FH Joanneum)
Most politically and genderifically incorrect: Construction Wanker (students of the FH Joanneum)

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Some of the exhibits (unfortunately lacking US contestants who already had to leave home) will still be on display until Fri, Dec. 12th (closing at noon) at the MQ, so if you haven’t been there yet, go have a look!

Also, on the occasion of the event’s 10th anniversary, the retrospective Roboexotica ^[33] in the form of a paperback was published by Edition Mono and can be purchased via Amazon ^[33].

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More info and useful links:
More photos on Flickr ^[34]
Pre-Roboexotica 2008 post by Scott Beale on Laughing Squid ^[35]
Post-Roboexotica 2008 post by Eddie Codel on Laughing Squid ^[36]
Announcement of the Annual Cocktail Robot Award winners on SuicideBots ^[37]

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All photos featured above have been taken by Eddie Codel, Bre Pettis, CTP, and SHIFZ, and are released under Creative Commos License AT-NC-SA.