to find the problem. (Rule one of robotics, especially cocktail
robotics: robots break.) For this reason, RoboMoji was
awarded Honorable mention in the category of Patience.
Chris Veigl’s Mind Reading martini maker — the winner
of the Mixing category — collected EEG scans of the drinker’s
brain to determine how strong a drink the drinker is to
receive. The more relaxed alpha waves the machine can
detect, the stronger the drink. Since everyone there had
previously been relaxed by other offerings, great amounts
of gin and vodka flowed from the generous mind reader.
A new touch this year was the inclusion of students from
FH Joanneum University Information Design course. The course
is taught by monochrom’s Johannes Grenzfurthner, and by
the looks of it he’s leading them in the right direction, design-wise. One specimen, “The BF Ice Cube Gun,” fired lethal
rocks into drinks. It worked by having the shooter carefully
place a glass in the receptacle under the target, and if the aim
was right, the shooter got a cocktail. If the aim was wrong, the
ice cubes usually ended up embedded in the wall, smashed
against the floor, or buried in the soft flesh of innocent
bystanders. If the aim was dead on, the machine would
give ice and drip an alcoholic beverage into the waiting cup.
The Rabbit’s Revenge — another student creation —
earned Honorary Mention for the cutest and most simple
user interface. The work consisted of a giant papier maché
rabbit, with one single switch on its furry chest. One side
said “Good” and one side said “Evil.” The most popular
setting throughout the exhibition was, of course, “Evil,”
seeing as “Good” lacked that key, free liquid ingredient in
which most exhibition attendees were interested.
Many contributors to the exhibition also came from
places far outside Austria. Michail A. Crest of Gryasnaya
Galereya from St. Petersburg, Russia, brought Explanator, a
complicated steampunk-style combination of tubes, wires,
artful lighting, and a brain. Not just a processor, an actual
pink, squishy organ. We’re not sure whose it was, but it
added a certain aesthetic dimension to Explanator — a slimy
one. In addition to the hardware, Explanator also included a
good old-fashioned experimental performance art piece.
There were body stockings, cute women in rabbit costumes,
and lab coats. During the piece, the artists fired up components of the machine to smoke some very fine tobacco
through a water pipe filled with absinthe. A good time was
had by all on stage. The Explanator team was rewarded for
their efforts with the prize for the Serving category.
Christopher T. Palmer, a kinetic artist from San
Francisco, CA, brought the
only machine that did not
directly involve alcohol —
“Blow Your Fortune.” The
piece works similarly to a
Breathalyzer test, only instead
of a DUI it gives a personally
tailored fortune from a smiling
wire head, which is also courteous enough to hold drinks
while the fortune is being told. Chris Palmer took home the
Other Achievements award.
The winner of the Best Swiss Entry category (a last
minute addition to the 2007 Annual Cocktail Robot Awards)
was Roman Maeder, with “The Holy Milk and Wodcow,” a
tactilely-interesting wooden bovine that dispensed milk and
vodka from large rubber nipples mounted on the underside.
The rubber udders were extremely popular with young nubile
women and the camera-toting young men following them.
monochrom’s own Franz Ablinger brought the newest
version of his drink-injection bot, Gesundheit VI. The
previous five incarnations of Gesundheit had not been up
to expectations. However, Mr. Ablinger won an award in
the category of Persistence, having brought Gesundheits
1-5 to every edition of Roboexotica since 2001. Gesundheit
VI still had a ways to go. A pair of hospital-grade automatic
syringe pumps dispensed carefully measured vodka, juice,
and vermouth according to which button the drinker
pushed on the machine. A glass moved along a conveyor
belt underneath the dispenser syringes, and an ingenious
LEGO-based contraption pushed the beverage into the
waiting hands of the recipient. A nominal fee of two Euros
activated the machine; we can only surmise that this was
for the continued refinement of next year’s drinkbot.
The Environmental award went to Quebecois builder
Jacques Gallant. “The Perpetual Popper” used only corn and
sunlight to make sustainable bar snacks, and was also charming
to look at; 2007 was Mr. Gallant’s first year at RoboExotica,
and though his machine did not function perfectly (or at all)
he is determined to come back next year with a better model.
Aktionsgruppe LN2.0 subverted the dominant paradigm
by protesting the coming robot revolution. Members in
masks and gloves paraded through the exhibit space armed
with liquid-nitrogen-cooled, mandarin orange flavored alcohol
treats for the masses. Their message was simple: Drinks are
for humans, and robots will never understand the social
ramifications of true bar culture. The Aktionsgruppe was
awarded Best Off-Topic Entry as a “good example of why and
when humans are still needed in the cocktail environment.”*
Honorable mentions were given out at the ACRAS as
well, for those machines that were interesting but still needed
a bit more refinement than the winners. Along with the
aforementioned Rabbit’s Revenge and RoboMoji, mentions
were given out to Tom Heike’s RoboFriend 2 in the category
RoboMoji —the amazing robotic
Mojito maker. It's chain driven,
ice-empowered, and mashes and
muddlesto perfection.
A college production of Hamlet, put on entirely
by anarchist robots, who later revolted against
their mainframe teacher to discuss what life was
like for robots. In German.
SERVO 06.2008 35
