After creating works involving robots for over a decade, choreographer Huang Yi (黃翊) is set to present his latest work in the spring in the form of a coffee shop set in the future.
In the upcoming production Little Ant & Robot: A Nomad Cafe, Huang further develops his dream of having robots and dancers perform together and interact with the audience, the choreographer said.
“The coffee shop is set in the future. I have been wondering about the possible interactions between people, as well as people and robots ever since I was little,” he said. “It should not be about technology replacing people in more and more areas,” said Huang, who envisages a harmonious relationship between people and robots, in which they help and support each other.
Photo: CNA
Huang, who is also a coder, first contacted German automation solution provider KUKA Robotics in 2010 and created Huang Yi & KUKA in 2012, in which he danced with a pre-programmed robotic arm that was over two meters in length.
The 2012 production has since been performed 78 times in 32 cities and 17 countries.
For his new production, which is scheduled to premiere at the National Theater in Taipei on April 23 before touring Taiwan through July, Huang uses a smaller 50-centimeter tall KUKA model.
Photo: CNA
KUKA will be programmed to serve coffee and dessert, interact with dancers, and use a drumstick to play rhythm, with some performances designed for families and children, said Huang.
Despite the fact that he is not a coffee drinker, his new work is set in a cafe and revolves around the drink — an important element in the lives of people he collaborates with — focusing on incorporating daily life into a dance piece, Huang said.
“It will be as if people can download fond memories here. There will be moments of people meeting with each other, parting, celebrating, as well as times of happiness, which are ‘saved’ in this work and can be played again and again like memories,” he said.
Apart from KUKA’s more detailed and intricate movements, Huang also mentioned the progress he is making with the new production.
“I’m very pleased that this time it is not just me writing the program,” he said, noting how every member of the production is more involved in the creative process.
For instance, one of the dancers is in charge of all technical aspects of the production, as well as designing the robot’s automation.
Huang also thanked Cloud Gate Dance Theatre founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) for his support, giving him lots of space and asking questions that helped clarify his ideas and taught him to be practical.
Given Lin is about 35 years his senior, Huang, who is in his late 30s, is also thinking about the role he can play for future artists, who he said are perhaps still babies now.
Huang believes 35 years is just about the time needed for an artist to make a major breakthrough in both the arts and technology.
“Then I can offer more substantial assistance,” he said, “the person [who would have my assistance] could be Taiwanese or a foreigner. I’ll wait for the individual to come to see a performance and to grow up.”
“I’ll encourage that person to have a unique voice, to contribute to the industry and to create art for his/her generation,” he said.
Little Ant & Robot: A Nomad Cafe will be staged at the National Theater April 23 to April 25, before moving to Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei for a month-long presentation in a more intimate setting in May.
The production will then move to the National Taichung Theater June 4 to June 6 and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts July 10 to July 11.
May 11 to May 17 Traversing the southern slopes of the Yushan Range in 1931, Japanese naturalist Tadao Kano knew he was approaching the last swath of Taiwan still beyond colonial control. The “vast, unknown territory,” protected by the “fierce” Bunun headman Dahu Ali, was “filled with an utterly endless jungle that choked the mountains and valleys,” Kano wrote. He noted how the group had “refused to submit to the measures of our authorities and entrenched themselves deep in these mountains … living a free existence spent chasing deer in the morning and seeking serow in the evening,” even describing them as
As a different column was being written, the big news dropped that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) announced that negotiations within his caucus, with legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, party Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chair Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) had produced a compromise special military budget proposal. On Thursday morning, prior to meeting with Cheng over a lunch of beef noodles, Lu reiterated her support for a budget of NT$800 or NT$900 billion — but refused to comment after the meeting. Right after Fu’s
Yesterday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominated legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) as their Taipei mayoral candidate, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) put their stamp of approval on Wei Ping-cheng (魏平政) as their candidate for Changhua County commissioner and former legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has begun the process to also run in Changhua, though she has not yet been formally nominated. All three news items are bizarre. The DPP has struggled with settling on a Taipei nominee. The only candidate who declared interest was Enoch Wu (吳怡農), but the party seemed determined to nominate anyone
What government project has expropriated the most land in Taiwan? According to local media reports, it is the Taoyuan Aerotropolis, eating 2,500 hectares of land in its first phase, with more to come. Forty thousand people are expected to be displaced by the project. Naturally that enormous land grab is generating powerful pushback. Last week Chen Chien-ho (陳健和), a local resident of Jhuwei Borough (竹圍) in Taoyuan City’s Dayuan District (大園) filed a petition for constitutional review of the project after losing his case at the Taipei Administrative Court. The Administrative Court found in favor of nine other local landowners, but
RSS