projects

Robots are constantly being portraited in fiction, essays, films and series. In the theatre, its presence has a long history (the term robot itself was first used in a Czech play in 1920), linked to the exploration of otherness, as well as to the theatrical objects par excellence, the mask and the puppet. On stage, the robot seems to evoke a 'disquieting strangeness' linked to the cohabitation of the animate and the inanimate, of rigidity and illusion of life. The robot's behaviour and its autonomy nevertheless determine a radical, external otherness, which raises the question of going beyond the human. Today, the human-machine interface, bionics, prosthetics and nanotechnology raise fundamental ethical issues and stimulate the artistic imagination. The stage can be not only the space for multiple transpositions of these questions and devices, but also a laboratory for experimentation. The project "Stage and robotics: interactions and interrelations" aims at constituting an interdisciplinary platform that brings together engineers, computer scientists, artists and researchers in the performing arts around the question of the sociability of both robotic devices and theatrical practice. Through the pooling of knowledge and languages, as well as the setting up of creation workshops and observation protocols, we wish to investigate the relational and dramaturgical potential of the robot on stage in its interactions with the actor and the spectator.

Website: https://scenesrobots.eur-artec.fr/

Ref: EUR ArTeC Scène et Robotique - ANR-17-EURE-0008

Role: Principal Investigator

Lifetime: 2020-2023