High 5

Cuddly robots

There were robots at Tai Kwun's birthday party. Designed by UK-based robotics studio Air Giants, Unfurl is an 18-piece kinetic installation, of which nine are massive, inflatable, pneumatically controlled robots. They are also cuddly and playful - the antithesis of mechanized, creepy and soulless automatons - and had forged a connection with Tai Kwun visitors of all stripes within minutes of their launch.

Emma Powell, co-founder and creative director of Air Giants, was delighted with "the range of audience responses" she came across during Unfurl's Hong Kong exhibition from May 23-31. People have "stroked, squeezed and bopped" the robots, tried copying their movements, sat under their shade, and even talked to them, she recalls. She also saw a couple of people bowing to the robots, "which I have never seen before!"

She agrees that what makes Unfurl's Hong Kong iteration unique is its backdrop. Installed in the Parade Ground - Tai Kwun's main courtyard, girdled on all sides by majestic, late-Victorian and Edwardian architecture - the enormous, soft sculptures that bend and twirl in response to human presence "make the space immediately welcoming and accessible", Powell says. "Visually, the clean lines of the architecture sit in stark contrast against Unfurl's undulating and wiggling; it's stunning."