KLOF
- cyberographies of folk
By Irina demina
Two dancing bodies on stage. One is a living machine – a human body.
The other a programmed machine - an artificial intelligence.
Both were trained in folk dances.
One - five years in the academic dance institution, training every day in order to drill and perfect the movement skills. The other one is a machine learning algorithm that has been trained for several hours using 26 folk dance samples recorded with motion tracking technology. Through millions of iterations, this computer model learned to
choreo(cybero)graph dozens of synthesised folk dances on its own. The dancer Viktória Kőhalmi then studied and interpreted one selected dance sequence.
The process of exchange between them has been charged with traditions and potentialities, both open and specific, harmonious and contesting, mechanical and spiritual.
Folk dances transmit the legacy of disciplining the bodies while framing them into representations of cultural identities. As we are acknowledging complexities and hybrid identities in our contemporary world, shouldn’t we rethink and hybridise the former “dances of the people” as well? The intersections between the digital and the analogue become especially intriguing when they are intertwined with the political and aesthetic potential of dance. Dance has always been a reflection on how society is organised and nowadays humans are increasingly extended by and merged with technology. Can artificial intelligence help us to de-hierarchize and reinvent these inherited bodily practices? What could be the kinaesthetic construction of the future world and who will
be moving/running/choreographing/driving/leading whom?
Concept / Artistic Direction / Choreography: Irina Demina
Choreo(cybero)graphy: KLOF model
Co-Choreography, Dance: Viktória Kőhalmi
Music: Michelangelo Contini
Machine Learning Programming: Dávid Samu
Computer Animation: Yaron Maïm
Stage Design: Yue Ying
Costume Design: Justyna Gmitrzuk
Light Design: Asier Solana
Visuals & Projection: Sven Gareis
Dramaturgical Support: Ana Letunić
Produktion und Artistic Assistance: Tammo Walter
Photos: Philipp Weinrich
Premiere 12. May 2022 at DOCK 11.
Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa.
Restaging in 2023 was supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR
The other a programmed machine - an artificial intelligence.
Both were trained in folk dances.
One - five years in the academic dance institution, training every day in order to drill and perfect the movement skills. The other one is a machine learning algorithm that has been trained for several hours using 26 folk dance samples recorded with motion tracking technology. Through millions of iterations, this computer model learned to
choreo(cybero)graph dozens of synthesised folk dances on its own. The dancer Viktória Kőhalmi then studied and interpreted one selected dance sequence.
The process of exchange between them has been charged with traditions and potentialities, both open and specific, harmonious and contesting, mechanical and spiritual.
Folk dances transmit the legacy of disciplining the bodies while framing them into representations of cultural identities. As we are acknowledging complexities and hybrid identities in our contemporary world, shouldn’t we rethink and hybridise the former “dances of the people” as well? The intersections between the digital and the analogue become especially intriguing when they are intertwined with the political and aesthetic potential of dance. Dance has always been a reflection on how society is organised and nowadays humans are increasingly extended by and merged with technology. Can artificial intelligence help us to de-hierarchize and reinvent these inherited bodily practices? What could be the kinaesthetic construction of the future world and who will
be moving/running/choreographing/driving/leading whom?
Concept / Artistic Direction / Choreography: Irina Demina
Choreo(cybero)graphy: KLOF model
Co-Choreography, Dance: Viktória Kőhalmi
Music: Michelangelo Contini
Machine Learning Programming: Dávid Samu
Computer Animation: Yaron Maïm
Stage Design: Yue Ying
Costume Design: Justyna Gmitrzuk
Light Design: Asier Solana
Visuals & Projection: Sven Gareis
Dramaturgical Support: Ana Letunić
Produktion und Artistic Assistance: Tammo Walter
Photos: Philipp Weinrich
Premiere 12. May 2022 at DOCK 11.
Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa.
Restaging in 2023 was supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR