Meet a polar bear

Thursday 7th June 18:00 - 19:00 Exhibition Area

Humans interact with bio-inspired, animal-like entities, in the form of robots, puppets and computer games. We respond to these animals socially and interact with them in a similar way to how we would react to a real animal. In this keynote experience, we will explore this in more detail. You will be able to meet and interact with a “real” animal. Kim will be working with a special (and secret – sorry!) set of mechanisms that allow one person to fully animate a large creature, he will be bringing his polar bear, Bjorn to the conference. Please come along - how often do you get a chance pat a polar bear? After meeting the polar bear, and taking a short break, Kim will talk about his performance experiences, and the psychological and animal behavioural techniques he uses to enhance the live experience of human puppet interactions, and the cultural differences he has observed performing around the world.

Kim Kaos is a leading creature puppeteer and maker, specialising in creating close-up live interactive shows with quadrupedal animals. He and his company Los Kaos have taken their creations worldwide and got involved in all sorts of strange things. They have appeared, and collaborated with, organisations including BBC Earth, Cirque du Soleil, Eden Project, CBBC as well as many more.