Opening: RoboLab & RoboArena

Will humanoid robots one day live among us as tireless, ever-loyal partners? Will they remain useless, expensive toys—grotesque machines that look surprisingly like us? Or will they even evolve into serious competition? 

Caught between science fiction and fears about the future, it’s hard to distinguish tech hype from realistic predictions about the future.

But why do we build robots in our own image in the first place? And what might happen if machines behave like us? In the Ars Electronica Center’s new RoboLab, we take a look behind the facade of humanoid robots. We literally take them apart: head, hands, legs—and the technology that moves them. In the RoboArena, you’ll encounter your technological counterpart on equal footing and experience firsthand what it might look like when the boundaries between human and machine blur—and just how similar and yet how alien humanoid machines are to us at the same time.

We cordially invite you to the opening at the Ars Electronica Center on Monday, November 30, 2026, at 6:30 p.m.!