Robots Edition
Whose embodied aesthetics are accepted as computable and worthy of credit in computing/engineering sectors?
This page details our first five-day residency at Brown University’s Humans to Robots Laboratory. With a particular emphasis on interrogating existing digital movement archives, we examine how Boston Dynamics’s Spot robots are already designed to embody dance.
Our methodology adapted tools and practices from dance improvisation and somatic practices that enabled critical intimacy while revealing the assumptions, limitations and power dynamics within the technological system.
Quick Links
Residency 1
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Residency 1 •
Day One
First Contact: How do we build mutual understandings of technical systems through applied learning in dance and robotics practices?
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How do we engage people who are wary of spot?
On our first day we established daily rituals for our collaborative process - grounding ourselves in shared practices as a group. We then spent the most of the day with a technical orientation of Spot - learning the different components of the system, how it is programmed to move around the space and how to navigate the system’s software and hardware.
This was Varsha, Jessica, and Elijah’s first time making the robot move. Varsha loved it. Jessica was skeptical. Elijah sat behind the desk.
These first moments spurred conversation about how we allocate agency, autonomy, and control onto the robot and the human controller.
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Formalize safety protocols using robotic safety recommendations and theatrical communication safety protocols
Establish daily rituals to cultivate meaningful collaborator relationships
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Activities
Create a research altar to hold meaningful items from each collaborator
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Review Spot’s robotic system--Spot Choreography SDK, Standard Operating Mode
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What stood out
The group unpacked the cultural and technological implications of Boston Dynamics' Spot robot, particularly its role in dance and virality. Boston Dynamics initially received military funding for a humanoid robot project, which later led to viral dance videos that boosted the company's visibility. Tracing this lineage, we discussed how cultural capital has been acquired by dancing with Spot–noting that high-profile dancers like K-pop band BTS and Katy Perry have benefited from their robo-collaborations, which paint them as technologically connected and cutting edge.
Day Two:
Deepening Understanding
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TUESDAY
How does deepening our understanding of complex systems inform our awareness of their biases, rhetorical norms, and cultural impact?
Highlights
Develop an improvisational score where the team took turns operating Spot, as a way to understand control structures
Develop an improvisational score to embody Spot’s “highjack” feature
Deepen understanding of the different facets of Spot’s robotic system–Choreographer Interface, handheld controller, physical robot body, robotic sensing system
On our second day, we unpacked each of the major components that make up Spot’s robotic system and Choreography SDK. Through this process we discovered the ability for one controller to take robotic control away from another controller without asking permission. This is done through the “highjack” feature. Our discovery led to a rich discussion about the rhetoric of highjacking as it relates to power, agency, and control.
To explore further, we developed our first improvisational score to examine the feeling of highjacking. One person stands in the middle of a circle of other people. Someone standing around the circle says “me” and begins improvising movement. The person in the middle of the mirror turns toward the speaker and mirrors their movement until another person takes control by saying “me.” The person in the middle then turns toward the new controller and mirror’s their movement.
End of day
Our first improvisational score initiated our collective practice of embodying robotic system features toward a deeper awareness of how practical choices to support system efficiency and effectiveness are laced with rhetorically and behaviorally complex practices that carry very different meanings outside of robotic contexts.
WEDNESDAY < ADD TIME 10:00 AM >
A day of play
Play with New Material: Try to replicate on Spot a dance phrase; explore music and BPM.
Transitioned from structured exploration to improvisational play - furthering embodied research within the context of Spot
Translation
1.
Does the “user-friendly” choreographer interface democratize access or is it an illusion of simplicity. If simple, then why dance?
Role reversal in approaches - Varsha newfound caution with the software while Jessica more confident. Until we collectively experiences first glitch. Elijah notes - “everyone curled in on themselves”
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Highlights
Comfort levels fluctuate like a graph - within the lab and outside perception of Spot. What is presumed safety versus reality - how human s get used to a normal.
3.
Trio A
Took us back to research on the No Manifesto - rejecting theatrics and emotionality [write more about significance]
Translated a historically significant post modern dance piece to ourselves and Spot - examining limitations of mapping human choreography onto robotic systems.
Hijack game evolved
Anxieties lowered as trust in controllers increased
Called this the me game where control would switch between participants. Each transition revealed distinct movement signatures
Are tools extensions of a person? Are they ways to connect to each other? [what is the Paul dourish concept of extension of an extension?
A Shift
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THURSDAY < ADD TIME 10:00 AM >
Try to Dance with Spot: Explore improvisational methods with Spot; Try dancing “like” Spot
Highlights
The Me game
Experiment in control, observation and embodiment
Participants altered control of Spot - observed how challenging it was to distinguish between human and machine agency - eg when Max controlled it - the lines blurred between control
Moment of complex triangulation - Max watching human participant, participant watching Spot - initiated intricate feedback loop of observation and response. Are we witnessing a duet or trio?
Human aesthetic shift when mirroring robotic movement
Bill T Jones - Floating the Tongue
Framework provoked to consider translation between nonverbal movement and spoken tongue
What aspects of movement/performance should be prioritized - voice, cadence or physical form?
Following Jones methodology, we developed a structure with phases moving from movement to narrated movement to allowing narration to affect the movement.
What is the dialogue between thought and action
Sydney joined us later that day
Conversation centerd around Spot as a boundary object - a container for the poerfomative desires of whoever is controlling it.
Metaphor for the projects exploration of human movement and intention manifesting in technological invention [not sure if weve said this before?]
FRIDAY < ADD TIME 10:00 AM >
Implement
Take what we’ve liked and deepen it for documentation and discourse.
PICTURE OF WHITEBOARD
Creating and Preserving our Archives
Morning
Dedicated to documenting the week’s explorations and solidifying conceptual frameworks
Recorded everyone’s version of TrioA
Filled out the Chunk spreadsheet
Transformed record keeping into personal engagement