Robb Lauzon

Who is Robb Lauzon?

Robb Conrad Lauzon is a Ph.D. Candidate in the department of communication and media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is also a radio personality at WRPI 91.5 FM Troy, NY where he hosts The Adventures of Uncle Sam, a civic education radio project, and Robo-Robb Radio, an experimental variety program that has aired weekly for the past 10 years. In the summer, he teaches Business Communication at University of Cincinnati. Over the past 18 years, he has performed and recorded music independently under the alias Robo-Robb. His lifelong passion for food provides a much needed break from his professional pursuits. In his kitchen, he maintains a from scratch ethos as he works towards developing a heart healthy menu for even the most discerning palate.

Robb's research focuses broadly on as the medium and the medium's capacity for influence. Specifically, his dissertation research explores how the built environment is shaped by deliberation and how our experience of this environment shapes the national imagination. To date, his publications have explored how marginalized voices claim space within the medium and also how digital media presents unique challenges for our current understanding of kairos. His current projects include: an interdisciplinary field research project covering the Flint Water Crisis, a multi-sensory ethnographic inquiry into the shifting meaning at the Statue of Liberty, and a project that explores the ambience of community pizzeria.

Curriculum Vitae

In 2013, after finishing his masters at Wayne State University, Robb pursued an adjunct teaching opportunity at Zane State College without hesitation. Although unsure how he would make ends meet teaching one class hundreds of miles away from home, this leap of faith soon lead to many opportunities at other institutions. In the fall of 2014, Robb began his studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he was challenged with a diverse mixture of teaching experiences (e.g., writing center tutoring, art instruction at a summer camp for local youth, etc.).

Courses Taught:

Broadcasting serves as a special area of Robb's pedagogical and artistic practice. As a platform for education, broadcasting enables Robb to interview a diverse range of public figures, push the generic constraints of music programming, and host impromptu dialogues in a mass mediated forum. As a medium for artistic expression, freeform radio provides the flexibility to shift the format of programming on a whim.

College radio has also become a part of Robb's pedagogical philosophy. He believes the ability for students to compose live programming for a public audience is an invaluable experience for students. Navigating the constraints advanced by the FCC and the university makes the experience real and consequential, unlike many of the exercises within the college classroom. Students are challenged to consider their audience while experiencing the circulation of their program in real time.

Below, you will find a link to radio interviews that have been aired on Robb's radio program.

Special radio project: After 2016's historic election, an election that many agree highlighted the deficit of the America's civic education, Robb decided to start a new program that popularized many of the conversations the go on within academia. He titled the show The Adventures of Uncle Sam. The show title is obviously metaphorical but it also plays on the location of its where it is broadcast terrestrially: Troy, NY which is considered to be the birthplace and home of Uncle Sam (Samuel Wilson). The Adventures of Uncle Sam plays historic political speeches and features live commentary on these speeches and their relevance for our contemporary political landscape. The show aims to bring voices from academia to the public through popular criticism of historic speeches. It is Robb's belief in community radio as a public service and its responsibility to its host community that fuels The Adventures of Uncle Sam.

How do we experience space? Specifically, how does experience contribute to the meaning of space? These are the questions that guide my current research. My dissertation explores the controversy surrounding the placement of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Ottawa and how Canada seeks to brand itself as a "land of refuge". I argue that debates over space are inscribed in the built environment. My research explores how these contested values are experienced by citizens as they move through memorial space. My other research interests include the medium, materiality, and popular science.

3 Minute Thesis Competition from Robb Lauzon on Vimeo.

Robb has been performing and broadcasting under the alias of Robo-Robb since 2006 when he released his first album titled Soulbot: Search for Contentment. His creative work utilizes the mediums of rap, narrative, dance, immersive stage performance, music videos, short films, and concert productions. He is most well known for his brand of science-fiction rap that explores themes of dystopia, artificial intelligence, human computer interaction, speculative futures, economic inequality, electronic colonialism, and other traditional themes like love, death, and your standard hip-hop braggadocio. Through his tenure at WXOU 88.3 FM Auburn Hills (2007-2014) and orchestration of dozens of concerts in the Detroit Area, Robb has enabled the artistic careers of hundreds of musicians from across the galaxy.

Albums:

  1. Electrobo (2016)

    Electrobo is a collaboration between Controller (Brian Preczewski) and Robb that was nine years in the making. The group originally formed after the completion of Robb's 2006 album. When creative differences emerged between the two, they decided to shelve the project indefinitely. In 2016, the group released their self-titled project that sonically explores experimental electronic music while providing a lyrical outlet for Robb to give voice to topics too taboo for his science fiction storyline and personal character (e.g., manscaping, adultery, etc.).

  2. Soulbot2 (2011)

    Soulbot2 is Robb's first project without the immediate artistic influence of Moonchild-although Moonchild does lend his talents as an executive producer behind the scenes. This project was born out of feelings and experiences of a newly minted college graduate during The Great Recession. The album serves as character development for the story introduced in Save the Music. Heartbreak, threatened masculinity, and total war are themes that run through the album building up to Save the Music's sequel.

  3. Robo-Robb and Moonchild Present: Save the Music (2008)

    Save the Music is the creative genius of Moonchild (Odai Baylor). On this album, Moonchild produces the music as well as offers narrative inspiration for Robb's lyrics. The result is a story that takes the listener from the dystopic world created by commercial music and its corporate sponsors to the moon, and back.

  4. Soulbot: Search for Contentment (2006)

    Soulbot: Search for Contentment is Robb's first project and also the album where he begins character development for his subsequent artistic endeavors. This album wrestles with artificial intelligence; specifically, what is it like for a robot programmed to have soul? Dreams, love, appreciation of the sublime, and alienation from mortal souls are topics addressed on this project as Robb works to illustrate the complex feelings of an automaton.

    5. Music Videos:

    1. Dubai2RV by Electrobo (2016)

      Dir. Brian Preczewski

    2. Death of Robo by Robo Robb and Moonchild (2014)

      Robo Robb - The Death of Robo from Eric Hinds on Vimeo.

      Dir. Eric Hinds

    3. GMS (2012)

      Dir. N. Jose Garcia

    4. 1984 (2012)

      Dir. N. Jose Garcia

    5. [Untitled] (2012)

      Dir. Demetrios Anastasiow

    6. Blast Off by Robo Robb and Moonchild (2009)

      Animated by Electric Otto

    7. Intro by Robo Robb and Moonchild (2009)

      Animated by Electric Otto

    8. War by Robo Robb and Moonchild (2009)

      Animated by Electric Otto

    9. Footwork by Robo Robb and Moonchild (2009)

      Dir. Demetrios Anastasiow

    Live Performances:

    1. controller's honeymoon v3 by Electrobo (2016)

      Edited by Briana Griffin

    Other project:

    Individual Responsibility (2015):

    This short film is a the culmination of a semester's worth of research into citizen science and amateur mycology in Kathy High's Science Fictions course at RPI. This is a dystopian narrative where the trope of individual responsibility has been stretched to its absolute limits and citizens are urged to find cures for their own ailments through herbal remedies.