Actuator - duet for dancer and industrial robot

Actuator is a dance work about the meeting of human and machine. The piece seeks to explore our inborn tendency to view machines as living, even personal creatures. How quickly will we begin to sympathize with an industrial robot that dances along with a human - or seems to react to the person's gestures and movements?

Choreography and programming: Thomas Freundlich

Dance: Thomas Freundlich and ABB IRB 1600 industrial robot

Lighting: Mia Kivinen

Robot and software: ABB Oy

Training and technical consulting: ABB Oy / Juha Mainio

Production: Jutta Heikkilä / Loistomeininki Oy, Elina Pekkala / Zodiak

Stage manager: Tuukka Törneblom

Music: Material, Massive Attack, J.S. Bach, Billie Holiday, es, Tod Dockstader, electronic and shortwave audio collage

Duration 30 minutes

Premiere at Z-in-motion festival, Zodiak Centre for New Dance, Helsinki, Finland on May 14th 2008

Robots are used in countless tasks in all areas of industry. Typically, industrial robots are "arms" with 5 to 6 independent axes of movement that are attached to the floor or ceiling and equipped with different kinds of tools.

In the arts, robots have occasionally appeared in various installations and performances. However, utilizing an industrial robot as an equal "performer" alongside a dancer is, for all practical purposes, an unexplored field.

We are all familiar with the computer that "acts up" or the car that "refuses" to start in cold weather. How will we relate to a robot that dances with - or against - a person?

"The integration of dance and technology has fascinated me for a long time. As a contemporary dance choreographer, I am fascinated by the unique movement quality of an industrial robot.

"The movement accuracy of a robot is typically less than 0.05 mm. What is surprising is that the mechanism can move not only in a sharp and angular (literally 'robotic') fashion, but also with eerie, dreamlike grace. In slow sequences using simultaneous rotation of multiple axes, the heavy industrial machine sometimes seems to float weightlessly through the air.

"On the other hand, the robot is capable of superhumanly fast and precise movements, punctuated by the aggressive buzz and whine of the motors. For a choreographer, all this opens up an exciting world of possibilities!

"Creating a dance piece as a duet for human and robot also raises interesting questions about how we perceive dance. Is a choreographed movement sequence dance, if it is performed by a machine? Can a robot be considered a performer? Can a machine make the viewer smile, or touch him or her emotionally?"

-TF