Nitesh

I am very interested in seeing how the performance of a robot could be something distinctly and uniquely robotic without simply being a stand-in for a human actor.

Central Questions:

• Can a robot express and evoke emotions without looking like it is imitating a human?
• How can a robot use the mechanical sounds of its own movements to convey different reactions to some event?
• Since a robot can perform specific, precise actions, how can it use subtle changes to convey small differences in meaning?
• Robots can continuously repeat actions exactly without worrying about fatigue or stress, so how could you take advantage of this capability for repetitive motion to create patterns, especially in a crowd?
• How can changing the shape of the robot affect how people view it? What forms should it be able to go between?

As a general question:

• How do you shape the image of a robot as a performer or actor in its own right (rather than a fixture of the stage/set) without it simply being a robot replacing a human actor? (or even a series of robots replacing a series of human actors)

Creative Constraints:

• Make sure robots are interacting with each other or somehow creating the illusion that they are working together.
• Robots cannot adjust for unexpected errors or change of plans unless they are foreseen and the robots are programmed for it.
• Try to keep the robots from making expressions the way humans do. Look more at animals and how they interact with the world (and express discomfort, pleasure, etc.)

Limitation of Scope:

• Keep the focus on the robot’s movements and sounds, allowing lighting, set design, music, etc. to be kept separate from the robot (without direct controls or reactions from the robot.)
• Keep the robot design fairly simple to experiment with multiple versions/patterns of robot interactions.

Measures of Success:

• Do the audiences feel moved somehow by the piece? Or do they feel that it is a more robotic/less natural version of a human performance?
• Do audiences feel that the robot can perform or does it read like a machine at work being framed as an art piece?
• Can audiences read the differences in the precise motions and pattern shifts in the robots or do they read too subtly? (Much like natural variance in an actor’s performances at different times.)
• How well do audiences read the emotions exhibited by the robots?