Dancing With Robots: Questions About Composition with Natural and Artificial Bodies

The formulation of questions is a central yet non-specific activity: an answer can be sought through many modes of investigation, such as, scientific inquiry, research and development, or the creation of art. This talk will outline guiding questions for the Robotics, Automation, and Dance (RAD) Lab, which are explored via artistic creation alongside research in robotics, each vein of inquiry informing the other. This talk will focus on a few initial answers from the group, including examples of robot-augmented dances, digital spaces that track the motion of participants, artistic extensions to student engineering theses, and participatory performances that employ the audience’s own personal machines. Questions guiding this work include: By what measure do robots outperform humans? By what measures do humans outperform robots? How many ways can a human walk? Is movement a continuous phenomenon? Does it convey information? What is the utility of dance? What biases do new technologies hold? What structures can reasonably be named “leg”, “arm”, “hand”, "wings" and the like? Why does dancing feel so different than programming? What does it mean for two distinct bodies to move in unison? How does it feel to move alongside a robot?