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@BostonDynamics posted a robot dancing video...MEGATHREAD
First, some obligatory context. Humans have been using animatronic characters, puppets, and various other partially or fully autonomously moving entities in stories for hundreds, if not, thousands of years.
These characters appear in myths ( @amayor ), plays (read @danceswithrobot), dances ( @JonahBokaer , @amylaviers, #huangyi), and installations ( @madelinegannon) - on stages in live performances and on screens in videos, films, etc.
@kengoldberg has given talks about the use of robots in past fictions. These tales are evocative for many reasons, included the much debated "uncanny valley". But perhaps moreso because of our self-perceived cognitive, sentimental exceptionalism @tobias_rees
It is a well known, if not overused fact, that the word “robot” originated in a 1920 play from Czech playwright Karel Capek. @Stanford 's "Intro to Programming" class CS106A uses “Karel the Robot” as the moving agent in its introductory assignments.
Second, these fictional representations are influential. @katedarling @medialab evidenced that if you give a robot a backstory, it increases human empathy towards that robot.
#christophbartneck showed that prior stories about robots are a central element that influence human perceptions of that robot, especially if the person has never had an anecdotal, personal experience with said robot.
@alaviers @The_RAD_Lab and I did work to place an HRI experiment inside a performance to measure people’s perceptions of robots before and after witnessing an artistic work. We cite several prior instances of robots embedded in art with a scientific aim: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8525520
Third, the motions these robots are performing are not isolated motions: they come with a musical backing which provides a rich context. They are sequenced together and derivative of human social dances (The Twist, The Mashed Potato).
They are filmed in a compelling way with the robots entering in an accumulation, a basic choreographic technique. All of which is to say, there are many humans who made creative choices in order to convey a specific POV and evoke emotions.
This video says a lot about *people* to me and not only are none of them are credited here, but as viewers we can do better than a knee-jerk "awesome!" "terror!" or "lovely!" when watching.
Fourth, the more people who can use these robots, the more subtle, strange, & empowering works will be made with them. More imaginative, odd, & intriguing ways they can move. What dances are specific only to robots? Dances that don't come from years of human social references?
@tw_arts and i worked during my artistic residency to make a motion capture tool that allows choreographers without programming experience to create dances for an @ABBRobotics industrial robot https://thoughtworksarts.io/projects/output/
Research from @StanfordHCI @parastooabtahi explores additional novel modes of human-robot interaction like touch in order to broaden how humans control and use robots: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3130899
And in a trail of non-enumerated final notes: how a robot moves is one of the most defining attributes of how it is perceived. Humans perceive patterns and emotions in moving objects when there are none...
We abstract this meaning from even minimal representations of moving bodies. See: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00623/full
Why? Perhaps because we want to. Perhaps because it's useful. Synchronous, rhythmic motion (as seen in this video) is known to solidify social bonds between people. Every early and contemporary human society shows evidence of group dancing. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-dancing-just-feel-good-or-did-it-help-early-humans-survive/
In another article (referencing @lkcirelli 's work): this "...propensity for synchrony may have been selected during the course of human evolution, in part because it allows us to bond with large numbers of people at once, offering a survival advantage." https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/moving-in-sync-creates-surprising-social-bonds-among-people/
Which takes us all the way back *to the top* of why this dancing robot video unleashes our curiosities, fears, sympathies, laughs, and questions - because our collective organization and imagination makes it so.
Finally, for more thoughts and vibes on this: @sydneyskybetter @h_gerba @medieninitiativ @Confessant @mer__edith @Douglas_Eacho
