K-pop androids and automated artists: welcome to South Korea’s strange and ambitious robot theme park

K-pop dancers at Galaxy Robot Park, a 16,500 square metre facility in Gangdong district, South Korea that its creators claim is the world’s first robot theme park. Photograph: Galaxy Corporation

Four child-sized humanoid robots take the stage at an arena in eastern Seoul, and as the opening beats of a song by K-pop star G-Dragon begin, they start to dance.

Arms swinging, legs stepping in sync, heads bobbing, wigs and baggy clothes swishing, until – mid-performance – one of them seemingly malfunctions and has to be removed from the stage.