Posts Tagged ‘robot’
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Robot gives young people a voice in Westminster
Throughout October, as part of Voicebox, v‘s youth insight and empowerment project, a writing robot will be installed in the Houses of Parliament. Its role is to take the views of individual young people from all over England right to the heart of the UK’s political system; voicing young people’s concerns, in their own words, in the corridors of power.
v, the National Young Volunteers’ Service, and Sidekick Studios have created The Voicebot, an industrial web-enabled writing robot arm which writes out the messages sent via the internet. We pose the question, ‘what do you care about?’ and their answer is written out and recorded for all to see. In October, The Voicebot and the messages it has recorded will be displayed in a unique installation within the very walls of Houses of Parliament, literally getting the views held by young people under the noses of MPs.
v aims to tell the government what people really care about (in less than 160 characters). Its like updating your Facebook status, but its a direct conversation with the government. Like this example, from the Wired blog (see also their top 5 bizarre Twitter replacements).
“I care about my Mum with Alzheimer’s, I take care of her every day but she doesn’t even know who I am. Can you help us?”
The aim is to demonstrate that people, and young people in particular, do have views and opinions on politics, they just might not want to communicate via the traditional channels provided to them. Not many people can be bothered to write a letter to their MP, but if it was a bit easier maybe they would…
Another real prompt for action is the fact messing around with a writing robot is just kind of cool. Political agenda aside, visitors to the site want to see if it really works and this is a compelling motivation to send a message.
v are aiming this activity at 16-25 year olds but anyone of any age can send a message via The Voicebot. Messages sent by over 25s have their own digital image created and are logged in a digital gallery on Flickr. People aged 16-25 get emailed a photo of their message in the flesh – check out what they’re talking about on the results page.
We have one month to get as many people as possible to send their message and ensure we have a big impact on the Houses of Parliament. Spread the word – and try it out for yourself here.
The Voicebot from sidekick studios on Vimeo.
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