At the N900 Push event in London in February 2010, Nokia promoted its N900 mobile computer by displaying dancing robots. These humanoid robots had molded breasts and danced near stationary poles, and made especially sexualised moves when participants sent specified SMSes.
This incident is an example of a sexualized environment, which can contribute to a hostile and unwelcoming environment for women at corporate and technical events.
- Participants texted commands such as "Nokia dance on" and "Nokia body on" to a specified phone number to control the robots
- Nokia PushN900 blog entry with link to video of event
- "Yeaaah, the pole-dancing robots are here to stay! :)"
- "RT @adonisdemon:http://twitpic.com/11d9to - This is wrong on so many levels. #PUSHN900 - But it's so right!"
- Giles Walker created the robots, which have CCTV cameras for heads, to illustrate issues of surveillance, desire, and voyeurism
- the robots were SMS controlled & commission installations by Giles Walker for PUSH Showcase. Hope they didn't offend