Hiroshi Ishigoro, credit: Tsukasa Aoki

Sayonara, credit: Tatsuo Nambu / Aichi Triennale 2010

Exactly this level of interaction makes up the narratical and philosophical tension of the amazing android-theatre Sayonara, which has been written for two actors by Ishiguro together with Oriza Hirata (JP), one of them being human, the other one an android. It is not told who is who, a puzzle to be solved by the audience. A great good-bye is in the center of Sayonara: The master who feels his death coming listens to poems about journeys and good-byes, read by his student. The play is about 20 minutes long and is in Japanese, English and German.

In conjunction with CREATE YOUR WORLD, we will be showcasing some of this year’s best projects that have to do with issues that are key to humankind’s future: energy, mobility and access. The Choke Point Project inquires into who actually exerts control over the internet. The Kibilight Project makes solar energy—and thus the first form of electrical energy of any kind—available to broad segments of the Kenyan population.

Haberlandt is a sort of food processor that turns algae into edible dumplings.

Team Mitoh / roomoot made up of students of Hiroshi Ishiguro (JP) is represented by an elaborate installation. The Ether Inductor equipped with high-performance sensors stages a playful encounter of two persons initially separated by a dark partition. If the two protagonists successfully carry out motion assignments issued on a display, the partition gradually becomes transparent and optical contact become possible.

Discover a truly fascinating instrument: the Mirage00. This audiovisual technical marvel by Kouji Ohno (JP), Tetsuya Yamamoto (JP), Toshikazu Toyama (JP) and Nobu Miake (JP) is not only a musical instrument that can be played intuitively; it simultaneously produces a visualization of the resulting sound in a 360° Panopticon. Thanks to its state-of-the-art sensors, it takes audience reactions into account and revises its audiovision accordingly.

The term Robotinity and the exhibition of the same name are emblematic of how robots and humanity are growing ever closer together. On display here are examples of this from art, design and science that clearly illustrate how intensively humankind and robots are already living and working together.

Three works by Hiroshi Ishiguro (JP) and Ryota Kuwakubo (JP) in this exhibition have been created especially for Ars Electronica 2011.

Telenoid is the latest creation by robotics expert Hiroshi Ishiguro (JP). It applies parameters of behavioral psychology to utilizing a new form of telecommunication. The Telenoid resembles a baby; during a telephone conversation, you hold it in your arms. Every change in the speaker’s voice is reflected by the robot’s facial expression. In interpersonal communication, it serves as a three-dimensional medium that can also get across body language.

In constructing robots, we are often inspired by how people behave and move or by the human physique. Ryota Kuwakubo (JP) takes a totally different approach in SiliFulin (hip swing), a robot equipped with a tail and a corresponding repertoire of movements.

In Lost #2 Ryota Kuwakubo (JP) dissociates the connection between useful value and functionality. Here, he lets the shadows of common household implements dance along walls and form poetic objects or strange landscapes. A simple strainer morphs into a majestic skyscraper, a light bulb into a whole power plant.

At this point, a lot of people are going to say: “Hey, wait a minute! Of course we know who we are. After all, we can cut ourselves open and show that we bleed.” So what. What if we’re a bleeding machine?

And what about the soul? Maybe that’s what could be called a command center. Maybe we can swap bodies, tap into another life?

Dismissing questions like this as absurd is relatively simple, so let’s put this in more concrete terms. For quite some time now, Ishiguro has been tinkering with robots, with humanoids, with androids. He’s gone so far that he’s now recreated himself as a robot, and the similarities are astonishing. Now, image the following: You can control this robot; you hear what it hears and see what it sees; it speaks with your voice and with your facial expressions (you’re being filmed and your expressions are applied to the robot’s face). So, what’s your body now? Which body interacts with its surroundings?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-tTS7Ze85o
Hiroshi Ishiguro presents the Geminoid IH-1 at the Ars Electronica and talks about his ideas

Or imagine that a person you’re very close to is controlling this robot, and you’re having a conversation with this person. She’s unmistakably saying what she always says, and she also somehow looks like she does, she sounds exactly the same, but it’s just not her. Or is it? How would you react if, all of a sudden, she kissed somebody else?

A play is being performed in the New Cathedral, it was written by Ishiguro and Oriza Hirata. The cast is an actress and an android. The audience isn’t told which is which—to avoid spoiling the suspense. Boundaries begin to blur. We’re approaching Ishiguro’s objective—namely, humanizing robots, interacting with them as if they were just like us. And perhaps we’ll soon no longer have to put receptionists through the ordeal of working tedious night shifts.

This play also raises fascinating questions, ones that urge theatergoers to subject their own perceptions to a bit of suspicious scrutiny. Those who dare to do so should definitely not miss this spectacle.