Artists Statement

Emergence by John McCormick, Steph Hutchison and an emerging performing agent, is a dance duet performed between a human dancer and an artifi cially intelligent performing agent. The agent has learnt to dance through a rehearsal process with the dancer, sharing the dancer’s movement and style. Emergence sees the dancer and agent co-creating an interactive semi-improvised dance performance. The neural network based agent uses a motion capture system as its sensory input for understanding the dancer’s movement. Emergence investigates the nature of embodiment, cognition and perception for a digital entity, and the relationships formed through the co-creative process of performance generation between the agent and dancer. Curated by Philippe Pasquier.

• John McCormick & Steph Hutchison investigate the use of machine learning for the development of intelligent performing partners and environments. Their practice has centred on the application of learning techniques to performing software agents and humanoid robots to explore the potential for them to become more a part of the collaborative performance-making process. Steph and John are artist researchers at Motion. Lab Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. McCormick is Deputy Director,  Hutchison is PhD Candidate  stephhutchison.com    motionlab.deakin.edu.au

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