AI_am Goteborg Workshop, Goteborg, Sweden, December 2016. Led by Valencia James (research and dance), Jim de Block (research and dance) and Aleander Berman (AI research and development).
“The interdisciplinary project AI_am explores how artificial intelligence (AI) and contemporary dance can inform and advance each other. Founded in 2013, the project brings together experts from the fields of dance, cognitive science, graphics and coding.
The project aims towards creating an improvised duet between an AI and a human dancer. The avatar, projected on stage, observes and learns the movements of the dancer, but also extends them with its own variations. Throughout the performance, the distinction between “teacher” and “student” gradually blurs, as the human dancer begins to find inspiration in the avatar’s novel movements.
By applying sophisticated machine learning techniques in the context of dance and by staging a unique meeting between art and science, the project seeks to rethink what performing art is or could be. At the same time, the project also raises more general questions about AI and its place in the world.
AI_am has been presented at TEDxDanubia, in Budapest, Hungary and TEDxGöteborg, in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2015. The team has published and presented research papers in several international conferences including the 2014 & 2015 International Movement and Computing Workshop, the 24th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-15) and the 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA2015). The Kinetic Dialogues interactive installation was presented at the ARTE@IJCAI exhibition at the Centro Cultural Borges in Buenos Aires and ISEA2015 in Vancouver. AI_am was most recently presented at the 2016 Gothenburg Science Festival in Sweden.”
For more about the AI_am project, click here.
Images by Sasha Amaya.
sasha amaya 