Blanca Li’s Robot aims to explore humans’ relationship with robots and AI technology. A robot and its human dance partner make art together (Photo via Blanca Li)
When you scroll past news stories about the latest companion robot, ever think to ask one to dance? Most likely not, but one dancer Blanca Li has, and she’s created a choreography routine, dubbed Robot, for her dance company. Working with Softbank’s robotic vision and Japanese artist Maywa Denki, the new dance is Li’s attempt to better understand AI tech along with exploring “the interactions between humans and robots, in an absurd and poetic way.”
The robots featured in the performance are NAO by Aldebaran Robotics. The bot is fully programmable, autonomous, and interactive. It walks, sees, dances, gets right back up if it falls, grabs objects, and even speaks with other NAO robots, the internet, and humans. Standing at 58cm tall, NAO sounds like the appropriate dance partner. Its movements are fluid and smooth ensuring it can keep up with the human dancers.
Robot first debuted at the Festival Montpellier Danse in 2013 and has been playing ever since. Not only does it feature eight dancers grooving with robots, but it also features wearable tech. This allows images to be projected onto the dancers and the musical device orchestra by Maywa Denki. The dancers, and robots, also sport powder blue coveralls, part of Denki’s signature outfit. The costume is supposed to represent the “typical working uniform of Japanese electric stores.”
The dance attempts to dig deep and asks larger questions regarding human/robot relations, like “Where are the borders between 'us' and 'them?' What kind of society will arise from it?" asks Blanca Li. "Can a machine, even an evolved one, replace relationships [with] the living? Will they be a reflection of what humanity unconsciously wants to represent?"
The production is actually impressive, but we shouldn’t expect anything less from Blanca Li. In the past, she’s worked with Paul and Stella McCartney, Coldplay, Michel Gondry, and Daft Punk. She provided the choreography for the robotic duo’s “Around the World” video. She was even one of the first choreographers to work with hip-hop music.
The robot may not answer all your questions about AI and our relationship to it, but it does make you think differently about robotics. Before, having a robot dance was a novelty, something to laugh at for a little bit. But this production takes that idea and turns it into a work of art. Should we expect a robotic chorus line? At this point, you never know.
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