MIARA dossier thématique

Silent Scream in the Uncanny Valley: Robot as scenographic body

Item

Titre (article, livre complet, chapitre de livre, publication réseaux sociaux, pageWeb, SiteWeb complet, etc.)

Silent Scream in the Uncanny Valley: Robot as scenographic body

Theatre and Performance Design

Auteur de la référence bibliograpique

Nebojša Tabački

Date de publication (AAAA ou AAAA-MM-JJ)

2024-10-01

Numéro (revues scientifiques)

4

Volume (revues scientifiques)

10

Intervalles des pages (articles)

283-299

URL (adresse Web)

https://doi.org/10.1080/23322551.2024.2431437

Is Referenced By

44MW7IQV

Abstract

In the mutual exchange between science and art that happens when a humanoid robot as scenographic body takes the theatre stage, technology becomes a mediator, confronting us with the relationship between the human and non-human agency. When presented with anthropomorphic characteristics, a robot humanises scenography, literally giving it a face, and so creates the preconditions for mindful recalibration of the experience of theatrical space solely through the human gaze. Questioning anthropocentrism, this process goes beyond aesthetics and engineering achievements, emphasising the liveliness of non-human matter and its agential capacity. In an attempt to contribute to the discussion on how approach to, and interaction with, robots on stage influences subtle perceptual modification of scenography, this essay looks into one specific example. Supported with the fields of robotics, posthumanism and new materialism, this study analyses the use of a humanoid robot as scenographic body in Rimini Protokoll’s theatre production Unheimliches Tal / Uncanny Valley (Kaegi 2018). When caught in the net of blurred lines and collapsed dichotomies between organic and mechanical agency within the discipline where appearances are deceptive, I have drawn observations from subjective, emotional experience reflected upon after attending the performance in Berlin. This has helped me to demonstrate how the familiar can suddenly turn into the estranged, opening a black hole that swallows understanding of scenography as we know it, leaving only a silent scream of the one left behind.

doi

10.1080/23322551.2024.2431437

issn

2332-2551

short title

Silent Scream in the Uncanny Valley

Source

Taylor and Francis+NEJM

Date Submitted

2025-03-07T20:47:06Z

is compiled by

ARCANES

Julie-Michèle

Media

theatreAndPerformanceAcademicSilentScream_captureCouv