Robot actor Aypera welcomes guests at Contemporary Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s first robot actor Aypera took the stage at the Contemporary Istanbul art fair, telling the visitors her story.

“Hi! I am Aypera. I am a digital human,” she says in video footage being played at the exhibit’s Plugin section that focuses on new media and digital arts. “I wonder about the world and humankind. I do not have a body like you.”

Producer and screenwriter Birol Güven told the state-run Anadolu Agency that they would shoot a film named Digital Human with Aypeara, which will debut in 2022.

“The only difference between Aypera and a human being is that it is designed by human,” he said. “Aypera was designed with government support, and our main goal is its export.”

Stating that Aypera will play in TV series and commercials and will also perform at a concert, Guven said they want to make Turkey’s first robot actor a “world-famous actress.”

“She has graduated from all conservatories... has read all the theater plays in the world and can read them in a few minutes. She can learn everything on Google. She knows and watches actors across the world closely,” he added.

Aypera has been developed by designer and instructor Bager Akbay, science fiction writer and science communicator Tevfik Uyar and computer engineer and creative technologist Zeynep Nal Sezer.

Akbay said their initial motivation was based on the question: “What can a character from Turkey show us about ourselves?”

Uyar said they took the aesthetic standards of the Turkish people into consideration while creating Aypera.