Sex machines: Robotic pole dancers invade French strip club

If you fear robots taking over human jobs, just you wait till you read about this one. 

Technology has long paved the way for a future filled with robot-derived pleasure. As the world advances, so does a plethora of emerging technologies that are harbingers of robot-enhanced good times to come.

This year, for its fifth anniversary, SC-Club in the French city of Nantes has come up with a rather extravagant way to celebrate — a joint robot-human stripper show.

These machines with CCTV heads grind and gyrate around a pole with moves mimicking a stripper. Some might find these pieces of gyrating plastic and metal "very sexy". Well, to each his own.

The robots are the brainchild of British artist Giles Walker, who overlaid their metal bodies with parts from plastic female mannequins to make them appear more human-like. Since then, he has been touring and loaning them out over the past year, including an appearance at CES 2018. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjS-cMn8GQQ[/embed]

They had been conceptualised a decade ago as an uncomfortable commentary on the pervasiveness of surveillance — thus why the inclusion of a CCTV camera as their heads. Concurrently, the concept also gives rise to the question of "who has the power between the voyeur and the observed person".

With the emergence of robotic technology, SC-Club owner Laurent Roue assured that the new members of staff will not replace the 10 human dancers who currently perform there, stating instead that it was a way of honouring technology. "...for us, it's a wink, a homage in a way to robotics," he added. 

The debut kicks off on Sept 3, where high heels will be worn and expressions of the wide-eyed spectators will be captured as they're getting mesmerised by the moves.

mabelkhoo@asiaone.com