This Saturday while fireworks bang and bonfires glow in the UK. Tergo, created by Pallas Founder Charles Willcocks, will hopefully be causing his own fireworks when Pallas’ Robot makes his festival debut hundreds of miles away in Berlin, Germany at the State Festival.

The State Festival now in its 2nd year is a unique festival, which invites scientists, artists, makers, thinkers, doers and the curious public to come together and explore a scientific topic. This year the theme is one of personal concern: emotion. The science-fuelled festival program combines engaging talks and discussions, thematic films, thought-provoking artworks and performances; with immersive visitor experiences, workshops, installations, and multiple hands on formats to engage with current scientific developments at the intersection of emotions research and artificial intelligence.

The selection of Tergo for the festival is an honour but also extremely complimentary to the film Charles wanted to create. Charles’ vision was to set and to create a Robot, an artificial life, that emoted feeling in the viewer. Tergo has done this for audiences all around the world with people contacting Pallas and Charles to tell him how the film had moved them. Tergo is a language-free film. It is the sheer emotive power and sentiment of the film and the Robot’s plight which makes his story work and why it has proven so popular.

Tergo will be shown in a short film programme at the festival, one of several, called AI: My Mechanical Heart. This short film program encompasses the creative imagination of young filmmakers regarding what a world with Artificial Intelligence might feel like. From sentient A.I that emulates humans to old school robots in need of love the films ask the audience directly what is it to be human and feel emotion. Tergo fits perfectly within this programme.

We are delighted that Tergo has been selected for the State Festival amongst other such high quality short and feature films. To have it explored and watched by scientists as well as artists is testament to the depth of the story that Charles and the Pallas team created. We hope that on Saturday night in Berlin Tergo finds his way in to the hearts of a new audience.