Greater Victoria has made a visible mark on hitchBOT, Canada’s beloved hitchhiking robot.
By the time she arrived at Mile Zero — the final destination in a three-week journey from Halifax to Victoria — she wore owl earrings from the Pauquachin nation, red spinner feathers from the Songhees nation, a tiara from the Empress hotel and the signatures of many more new friends along the way.
“It’s been a long day, but it’s been a day of joy,” said Steve Sxwithul’txw, hitchBOT’s chaperone for the day.
HitchBOT was conceived as a piece of collaborative art by researchers David Harris Smith and Frauke Zeller in Ontario.
She departed from Halifax on July 26 and arrived in Victoria Saturday. Her westward travels have included camping in New Brunswick, crashing a wedding in Golden and being given the name “Biiaabkookwe” or “Iron Lady,” at a powwow on Manitoulin Island, Ont.
“This was really a piece of participatory artwork and performance where everyone was involved in shaping it and making it happen, including social media users, who have been able to follow along vicariously,” Harris Smith said.
“It’s been an outrageous success, beyond any question.”
HitchBOT became a social vehicle itself.
“I think there were three young men in northern New Brunswick who said, ‘What’s really ironic is that picking up a robot caused us to meet all kinds of new people.’”
With a day off on Vancouver Island, hitchBOT assumed the role of tourist. She began by visiting the Tsawout, Tsyecum and Pauquachin First Nations.
“It’s a chance for the kids to see technology up close, embrace it, understand it, be curious. And maybe one day, we’ll find out one of these girls or boys will become engineers who develop the next hitchBOT,” Sxwithul’txw said.
About two dozen kids waited outside the Pauquachin band office for its arrival. The crowd was much smaller at the Tseycum after-school portable — and with the quieter room, hitchBOT actually said a few jumbled words:
“Do you love me?”
“Do you know the origin of the universe?”
“What’s your favourite American football team?”
It didn’t seem to matter to those who heard her.
“She’s awesome. That’s it,” said Michaela Jones, 11, who just watched a movie about robots Sunday night.
Although hitchBOT apparently yapped away in the car between stops, she was silent most of the day. Call her shy, but she becomes overwhelmed with too much noise.
Vern Jack, 69, asked hitchBOT, “How are you?” in Coast Salish, but didn’t get a response. Jack also added a critical voice to the visit.
“My question is, when you have a thing like this hitchhiking, are you encouraging kids to hitchhike?” he said. “I hope it’s good for the kids. It’s just, how are they going to take it?”
After a tour through the Patient Care Centre at Royal Jubilee Hospital, the bot showed that hitchhiking doesn’t only happen in cars. Members of the Songhees nation gave her a traditional welcome in the Inner Harbour, transporting hitchBOT via a 50-foot cedar dugout canoe borrowed from the T’souke nation.
Mike Charlie of the Esquimalt nation made the feathered headpiece — a piece of dance regalia that spins in the wind — and also guided the canoe from the breakwater to the Inner Harbour.
Traditionally, they would be eagle feathers, but in this case he used geese feathers and painted them red, for protection.
There was tea on the lawn of the Empress hotel, where a tiara was placed upon her head. And after some photos at Mile Zero, she went home with Sxwithul’txw.
“Since we started at the side of the road, there’s been some memorable event or some kind of poignant interaction almost every day,” Harris Smith said.
He and Zeller are preparing to board a plane to reconnect with hitchBOT. The public is invited to a party for the robot at Open Space Thursday at 7 p.m., as well as a talk at the Royal B.C. Museum Friday at 3 p.m.
They are also looking into the possibility of another journey to parts of Canada that it missed the first time, including the North and Newfoundland, as well as visits abroad (beyond a day trip to Seattle planned for Tuesday).
“I think there’s a real willingness to engage with technology, education, science and culture. And I think hitchBOT quite effectively combines those things,” Harris Smith said.
