The talk was part of the event Ludic Method Soirée: Daphne Dragona / Oliver Schürer, [S]care Wolves - a social play performance with the humanoid care robot "pepper"

How much do we know about or reflect upon automated care? What happens when cute robots, artificial human companions and intelligent assistants of all kinds become part of our everyday life? Playful and tireless, such machines can continuously learn from us and respond to our desires and needs. Providing services of a machinic and affective character, they come in perfect accordance with the neoliberal call for optimisation and self-care.They challenge the relationships between humans and machines, and they are introduced as affective infrastructures that can assist on an individual and societal level. The talk will address the challenges of the emerging technologies of care, bringing into the discussion artistic responses and critical perspectives. Special attention will be payed to the instrumentalisation and commodification of care but also play, with references to works and topics that were discussed in the framework of transmediale festival 2019, the exhibition Tomorrows (Le Lieu Unique 2019), and the Engineering Care Web Residencies by Solitude & ZKM.