The Woman and the Snowman, a moving image and machinic installation, joins a humanoid robot (Ishiguro, 2007) created by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University and a projection depicting a snowman to present two differing allegories of reality. Functioning as an ‘honest’ representation of a fictional being, the snowman becomes seemingly more real than the humanoid woman robot as the artwork unfolds. As an investigation into the boundaries of reality, The Woman and the Snowman comments on the influence technological advancements have had upon mediating relationships.

The Woman and the Snowman was presented at ISEA 2013 part of a suite of projects focused on experimental use of mechanisation (in particular robotics) in both representational construction and in furthering the impulse for deconstruction, even destruction. Collectively the projects presented both live processes and outcomes associated with robotics within contemporary practice, ranging across the construction and presentation of images and painted forms through to the erasure of architectural form and alteration of material structures.