A Conversation with Sarah Bay-Cheng
Dances with Robots
Sydney Skybetter sits down with Dr. Sarah Bay-Cheng, a performance studies professor, scholar, and Dean at York University in Toronto, Canada. They discuss their shared expertise in deaning, puppetry, and the COVID moment. Read the transcript, and more in our archives at Like, subscribe, and review here: Hear more from Sydney and Sarah via ON TAP: A Theatre and Performance Studies Podcast: The Dances with Robots Team Host: Sydney Skybetter Co-Host & Executive Producer: Ariane Michaud Archivist and Web Designer: Kate Gow Podcasting Consultant: Megan Hall Accessibility...
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This One's for the Dancers
Dances with Robots
Sydney and Ariane showcase two groups of artists leading the way in combining technology with the performing arts. Sydney talks with choreographer Bill T. Jones, while Ariane chats with dancers Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson. See featured guests, read the transcript, and more in our archives at Like, subscribe, and review here: The Dances with Robots Team Host: Sydney Skybetter Co-Host & Executive Producer: Ariane Michaud Archivist and Web Designer: Kate Gow Podcasting Consultant: Megan Hall Accessibility Consultant: Laurel Lawson Music: Kamala Sankaram Audio Production...
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Code Switch: A Conversation with Raja Feather Kelly
Dances with Robots
Sydney Skybetter sits down with artist Raja Feather Kelly to talk about his work in live performance. The two consider airport security and the end of the world, and Raja shares how his personal experiences and creative work shape one another. About Raja: Choreographer/Director Raja Feather Kelly is the artistic director of dance-theatre-media company the feath3r theory (founded in 2009). In 2018 the feath3r theory merged with New Brooklyn Theatre. Raja has been awarded a Creative Capital Award (2019), a National Dance Project Production Grant (2019), a Breakout Award from the...
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Turning The Tables
Dances with Robots
Sydney Skybetter discusses some of the core theories that he teaches at Brown. Turns out, what works in the dance studio doesn’t always work in the real world. See featured guests, read the transcript, and more in our archives at Like, subscribe, and review here: Key Takeaways from Episode 9: 1.Artists can use their implication in institutions to effect change from within. 2.It is important to be conscious of the compromises and power dynamics involved in working with emerging technology. 3.Technology is not neutral and often reflects the biases and limitations of its creators. 4....
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Overclocking of The Human Computer
Dances with Robots
Sydney Skybetter sits down with performance historian Doug Eacho to discuss emergent technologies of the last century. They explore how sci-fi has influenced our expectations for the future of performance, and why these expectations almost never become reality. About Doug: Douglas Eacho is a performance historian and theater director. His current research project concerns artists and engineers who have sought to automate theatrical processes, from French surrealists, to lighting board designers, to contemporary makers of algorithmic dance. He explores the increasing integration between...
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There Is Always A Cost
Dances with Robots
Ariane Michaud, CRCI’s Executive Producer, steps in this week as host. She explores various forms of emerging tech, from the New York Police Department’s deployment of “Spot” robots to getting drones ready for dance performance. What are the challenges? The risks? The opportunities? See featured guests, read the transcript, and more in our archives at Like, subscribe, and review here: Key Takeaways from episode 7: 1. Safety measures and considerations for human well-being are crucial when working with emerging technologies. 2. The use of robots in law enforcement raises...
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Dances with Robots IRL: A Conversation with Catie Cuan
Dances with Robots
Sydney Skybetter sits down with choreorobotics innovator, Dr. Catie Cuan. They discuss her personal and professional trajectory, and try to answer the question: why dance with a robot? About Catie: An engineer, researcher, and artist, Dr. Catie Cuan is a pioneer in the nascent field of ‘choreorobotics’ and works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction, and art. She is currently a Postdoc in Computer Science at Stanford University. Catie recently defended her PhD in robotics via the Mechanical Engineering department at Stanford, where she also completed...
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Choreorobotics 0101
Dances with Robots
Sydney Skybetter gives us an inside look into his research into chorerobotics; the overlap of choreography and robotic motion planning. He and the CRCI team ask questions about the risks and the implications of the work, and what it means to make a robot do the mashed potato. See featured guests, read the transcript, and more in our archives at Like, subscribe, and review here: Key Takeaways from Episode 5: Dance can be used to make robots appear more friendly and palatable, but it's important to remember that they can still be dangerous. Teaching roboticists choreography and...
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Fierce on the Palm Pilot: A Conversation with Kamal Sinclair
Dances with Robots
Sydney Skybetter and producer Kamal Sinclair chat about the intersection of the cultural sector, emerging technologies, and the vintage hardware that shaped their childhoods. Are we all complicit in these complex cultural systems? Oh, and also, can we please bring back the Filofax? About Kamal: Kamal Sinclair supports artists, institutions, and communities working at the convergence of art, media, culture, and technology. Currently, she serves as the Senior Director of Digital Innovation at The Music Center in Los Angeles, which is home to TMC Arts, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Master...
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The One With Tom Cruise
Dances with Robots
Sydney Skybetter interviews John Underkoffler, the Science and Technology Advisor for the 2002 movie Minority Report. We talk about how the infamous computer gesture scene that made John famous led to the founding of Oblong Industries, a company that tried to make Minority Report’s speculative interfaces a reality. See featured guests, read the transcript, and more in our archives at Like, subscribe, and review here: Key Takeaways from Episode 3: 1. John Underkoffler developed the gestural interface in “Minority Report” by studying various gestural systems, including sign...
info_outlineSydney Skybetter sits down with performance historian Doug Eacho to discuss emergent technologies of the last century. They explore how sci-fi has influenced our expectations for the future of performance, and why these expectations almost never become reality.
About Doug:
Douglas Eacho is a performance historian and theater director. His current research project concerns artists and engineers who have sought to automate theatrical processes, from French surrealists, to lighting board designers, to contemporary makers of algorithmic dance. He explores the increasing integration between automaticity and theatricality on and off the stage, and the shifting ways technology performs amidst conditions of economic stagnation. Another research thread concerns the long history of statistical representation as it has intersected with naturalist and aleatory performance; this work informed his article “Serial Nostalgia: Rimini Protokoll’s 100% City and the Numbers We No Longer Are” (Theatre Research International, 2018). His reviews have been published in Theatre Survey, Theatre Journal, and Theatre and Performance Design. Before his doctoral studies, his found-text performances were presented around New York City, including at the Invisible Dog, Judson Memorial Church, and the Center for Performance Research. “His Fear of a Lonely Planet,” a piece about tourism, was devised with Stanford University students in 2018.
Read the transcript, and find more resources in our archive: https://www.are.na/choreographicinterfaces/dwr-ep-8-overclocking-of-the-human-computer
Like, subscribe, and review here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dances-with-robots/id1715669152
What We Discuss with Doug (Timestamps):
0:00:04: Intro to Doug Eacho and his expertise in performance history & technology
0:00:29: Discussion on the portrayal of AI in the media
0:01:52: Exploring the intersection of performance & technology throughout history
0:04:17: Defining performance and technology in relation to art
0:07:38: Analyzing the connection between acting and the portrayal of robots
0:09:15: Discussion on the sexist trope in Blade Runner
0:11:05: Mention of a deleted Salome dance scene in Blade Runner
0:13:08: Interpretation of science fiction as art about the present
0:14:12: Conclusion on the nature of science fiction as predictions of the future
0:16:33: Balancing the future and the present as a parent
0:18:05: The misconception of AI appearing out of nowhere
0:19:40: The history of technology and overestimating its capabilities
0:22:23: The impact of technology on labor and jobs
0:23:55: The narrative of creating better worlds through technology
0:25:23: The promises of digital technology in a capitalist society
0:26:12: Artists creating critical work on technology and inequality
0:27:39: Algorithmic dance and the work of Liz Santoro and Pierre Gaudar
0:30:53: Overclocking the human computer
0:33:37: Illusion of power in using AI systems
0:34:06: Show credits & thanks
The Dances with Robots Team
Host: Sydney Skybetter
Co-Host & Executive Producer: Ariane Michaud
Archivist and Web Designer: Kate Gow
Podcasting Consultant: Megan Hall
Accessibility Consultant: Laurel Lawson
Music: Kamala Sankaram
Audio Production Consultant: Jim Moses
Assistant Editor: Andrew Zukoski
Student Associate: Rishika Kartik
About CRCI
The Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces (CRCI) explores the braid of choreography, computation and surveillance through an interdisciplinary lens. Find out more at www.choreographicinterfaces.org
Brown University's Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies' Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces thanks the Marshall Woods Lectureships Foundation of Fine Arts, the Brown Arts Institute, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for their generous support of this project.
The Brown Arts Institute and the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies are part of the Perelman Arts District.