AATB treat robotics like a material—flexible, unpredictable, almost tender. The duo, Andrea Anner and Thibault Brevet, pushes industrial automation far beyond factory logic, transforming robotic arms into performers, collaborators, and sometimes awkward companions. Their practice merges engineering with choreography: software becomes gesture, precision machining becomes play, and human–machine interaction turns into a staged, slightly uncanny intimacy. By placing robots in everyday, non-industrial contexts, AATB reveal how deeply automation already choreographs our movements and desires. Their work asks a simple, radical question: what happens when machines stop producing things—and start producing experiences?
Andrea Anner and Thibault Brevet – founders of AATB – are artists and designers, both graduates from ECAL. Their ongoing research around human/machine interactions led them to investigate the potential of robotics and industrial automation to exist outside the realm of factory floors. Their artistic practice involves a tight connection and understanding of manufacturing processes, ranging from software programming, electronics to mechanical engineering and precision machining. Reflecting on the dissemination and assimilation of robotics into mundane activities, their work critically explores novel situations arising from these shifts. The studio is based in both Zurich and Marseille.
Their work has been exhibited in institutions such as ZKM (Karlsruhe), V&A (Dundee), Ars Electronica (Linz), Chengdu Biennale (Chengdu), New Museum (New York), Venice Biennale of Architecture, Zollverein (Essen), Unfold X (Seoul), APS Museum (Shanghai), HEK (Basel), Istanbul Design Biennial, Milan Design Week, Museum für Gestaltung (Zürich). AATB have been artists in residence at CERN and at Atelier Luma in Arles. They have been awarded the Swiss Design Award in 2021.
AATB have been teaching in most Swiss Art and Design universities (ZHDK, ECAL, HEAD, FHNW, HKB, SUPSI), as well as internationally: Seoul University of the Arts, Design Academy Eindhoven, HFG Karlsruhe, Iceland University of the Arts, amongst others. They have been lecturing and speaking at conferences internationally: Tokyo, Prague, The Hague, Seoul, Madrid, Berlin, Cannes, Torino.
Keynote Speaker:
Thibault Brevet
Website:
aatb.ch
When?
5 March 2026
7:00 pm
Where?
Swissnex in San Francisco
Pier 17
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