Julian Ceipek

Returning the Gaze is a robotics installation by Behnaz Farahi, supported by Universal Robots, and commissioned by fashion label ANNAKIKI for its cyborg-themed Milan Fashion Week 2022.

I worked closely with Behnaz to develop the high concept of the project: a fashion model cybernetically enhanced rather than controlled by technology stares back at an audience primed to be the watchers at a fashion show. We prototyped many different design directions before creating what Georgina McWhirter of Interior Design calls

a clever investigation of the fashion industry’s history of complicity with objectification.

My technical roles on the project included…

• learning the proprietary Universal Robots programming language, URScript
• designing and implementing safe multithreaded robot control code and a system to drive and synchronize the behavior of four robotic arms moving fluidly in close proximity to a human performer
• creating tools to help Behnaz record, simplify, and compose robot animations using a 6-DOF VR controller