Deus ex machina
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In the period of 3 months, Karolina Bieszczad-Stie, Zofia Jakubiec and Øyvind Jørgensen researched exoskeletons, with the focus on gestures and movement composition that stems from the old Norwegian TV show - Pompel og Pilt. Exoskeleton is a wearable (electro)mechanical device that has been developed as augmentative device to enhance the physical performance of the wearer. It provides better mechanical load tolerance, and its control system aims to sense and synchronise with the user's intended motion.
The combination of dance and exoskeletons is a novel approach, as it differs from other dance projects that use robotic devices. These projects either focus on the machine fully controlling the human dancer's movements or the human dancer (or programmer) fully controlling the robotic device to execute choreographed moves. The intuitive and improvisational use of the robotic device connected to the dancer's body is an uncharted territory that gives us an opportunity to explore the dancer’s new (hybrid with robotics) body image and body schema as never done before (body schema refers to the system of sensory-motor functions that enables control of the position of body parts in space, without conscious awareness of those parts. Body image refers to a conscious representation of the way the body appears—conscious perceptions, affective attitudes, and beliefs).
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During the two-days testing, we made a few quick observations: wearing the exoskeleton gives a nuanced but very profound change in the upper body where arms, supported by the exoskeleton, seem to defy gravity at some point when lifted. This feeling/movement is not immediately visible to the audience, at least not to the extent it is experienced by dancers (one can observe a slight but sudden change in the movement tempo when the exoskeleton’s support starts working). We will further examine this in the full-scale production. Secondly, exoskeletons “lose” their power when dancers use their muscle force, including moments when one dancer puts pressure on the other, for example when holding hands. This discovery opens up possibilities to further investigate the “on and off” activation of the body with exoskeleton, via choreographed movement.
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The research project is developed into a full-scale dance production (2025).
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Choreography: Karolina Bieszczad-Stie
Dancers: Øyvind Jørgensen, Zofia Jakubiec, Tove-Elena Nicolaysen, Marta-Luiza Jankowska, Azumaru
Supported by: Kulturrådet, Motek AS, Dansens Hus (gratis prøvetimer)
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