Poster Statement

Keywords: Dance, human-robot interaction, puppetry, natural interface, non-verbal communication, expressive motion, shadow theater, dance analysis

Swarms are fascinating and hypnotic in nature. When observing a flock of birds or a swarm of ants, we sometimes wonder what their goal or reasoning (instinct or learned?) is, but, more often, we get lost in the contemplation of their complex organization and the aesthetic qualities of their coordinated motion. As part of an ongoing research-creation project, our team of choreographers, expressive motion experts, puppeteers and engineers designed a device to explore and manipulate the ‘swarm material’. This demonstration will provide the audience with a robotic swarm in a portable shadow theater.

• Hélène Duval PhD. associate professor in the Dance Department of UQAM (CA) works with engineers, puppet artists, dance artists, sound artists and a movement analyst, on a research-creation on humans and robots in interaction, with notions of choreography, intelligence of robotic swarms and expressivity. https://initrobots.ca/equipe/helene-duval
• David St-Onge associate professor in mechanical engineering at ETS (École de Technologie Supérieure, Canada), director of INIT Robots Lab https://initrobots.ca/equipe/david-st-onge
• Audrey Rochette, choreographer, MA, Dance, Hexagram, Canada https://hexagram.ca/fr/demo28-audrey-rochette-playing-worlds