During this year’s fabulous Manipulate Festival, I was fortunate enough to witness Choreographer Ugo Dehaes cut the edge of choreography with Simple Machines. Part social commentary, part philosophical adventure, this Dr. Moreau’s world of dancing robots went down a storm with adults and kids alike. I was lucky enough to put a few questions to Ugo, and without further ado here are his answers!
In the blurb for the show, Ugo, you#re described as asking ‘[yourself] what [you] would like to see on stage at that given moment’, what is it about robots that you want to see in this moment?
At a certain point in my career I found it increasingly difficult to secure funding for my projects, and I had the feeling I needed to be more creative with my bookkeeping than with my art. That was frustrating and made me sad. So I tried to imagine how I could make dance in the cheapest and most simple way possible. I got this image of an audience sitting around a table on which I would present a show performed by objects. A mini-version of a show that didn’t require rehearsal-space nor dancers that needed to be paid.
In order to make objects dance, I started to experiment with motors, which led to robots.
I didn’t have a particular kind of robot in mind, but just started building. Their not-so-fluent movements gave me the idea to create soft skins for them out of latex and silicone.
You’ve been a dancer since the age of 18, and also a choreographer…does working with robots offer you an existential crisis?
In the beginning of my career I was always dancing in my own work, but with the years the productions, and the number of dancers on stage, grew. In order to keep an overview, I decided to dance less and less and focus more on my role as choreographer. Working with robots doesn’t feel all that different from dancers, in the sense that I am always intrigued by the bodies and specific capabilities of my dancers (I hardly ever show them exactly what to do). Just as dancers, my robots have a specific body and specific things they are good at. Talents I can work with and create dance with.
“Working with robots doesn’t feel all that different from dancers, in the sense that I am always intrigued by the bodies and specific capabilities of my dancers…”
On the level of performance however, there is an enormous difference: the human body is so complex and capable of expressing so many emotions, which seems impossible to achieve by a robot. I like how my robots dance, but we are still lightyears away from robots that could actually replace human dancers for any kind of show.
How did you enter the world of robotics and AI?
As a kid I was always interested in science and technology. But when I was 18 and needed to choose what I would study I wasn’t convinced about the jobs in the field of technology. This was at the very beginning of the Internet and before all the cool things happening in Silicon Valley. Somehow I ended up deciding I would study dance for a year and see what would happen. More than 20 years later I am still working in the dance-field, but I always kept my passion for technology. It is only in the last decade that electronics, like Arduino, and drones became accessible for the masses, and I immediately wanted to experiment with that.
Working with (basic forms of) Artificial Intelligence came later: choreographing robots takes a lot of time. I started to experiment with AI hoping it would make that job more easy.
What does ‘Simple Machines’ tell us about your story as a creator? What does ‘Simple Machines’ tell us about your view of society and humanity?
I’ll answer these questions together: Simple Machines is a show that has 2 layers: on one side you see a choreographer who is fascinated by movements and tries to create cheap and simple machines that can perform dance for him, he’s very enthusiastic about the economic solutions our society found to make this possible. But on the other side it is a mirror for our society: do we, as a society, want our jobs to be done by robots and AI, and if so, what should we get in return? Or do we accept that the gap between rich and poor gets bigger and bigger.
Ugo Dehaes, do you view A.I. as a friend or foe to humanity as we move forwards?
At the moment I see AI as a tool, something we, humans, can use to improve and accelerate whatever we need to do. For some it’s a gimmick, for others it becomes a life-saving tool. I don’t think AI will replace artists, but using AI will become an artform in itself: knowing what to ask from it in order to obtain interesting results is an art in itself.
In the long run, when AI starts to become intelligent and creative enough to improve itself, the evolution could go very fast. If we then give these programs access to the physical world (through robots for example), dangerous things could happen – but I believe we are still far away from that moment.
“…do we, as a society, want our jobs to be done by robots and AI, and if so, what should we get in return?”
How much fun is it to put the show together and then perform it?
When I started to create Simple Machines, I felt like a child again. I got to play with materials, motors, sensors and other pieces of technology.
I have performed the show about 150 times, and I still like it a lot: that is because the setup invites people to participate in the show: they don’t have to do anything, but many people like to touch the robots or talk back to me: this makes every show a little bit different. The subject touches people, so after the show I get a lot of questions. All this makes it an interesting experience for me as well.
All Images: Arne-Lievens
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