Talk by Louis-Philippe Demers 16-03-16 Robotics in productions, installation & performance

Louis-Philippe Demers: Artificial Theatre ACTS RE-ACTS 3 CLOSING EVENT

Louis-Philippe Demers will discuss robotics in cultural productions with particular reference to his own installation and performance work.

Date/Time: Wednesday 16 March, 5.30 - 7pm
Event & Artist: Artist Talk. LOUIS-PHILIPPE DEMERS, ARTIFICIAL THEATRE

Description: 'We share and identify to biological, social and cultural experiences with performers on the stage. Phenomenologists and theatre theorists claim that these experiences are vastly grounded in the experiential body. What happens when we inject artificial construction on the stage? Artificial constructions such as machine performers or hybrids made of man and machine? 
'By exploring alternate body morphologies and behaviours in the machine performers, I seek to understand the mechanism of perception and reception of robotics in a staged context. In turn, this gives me insights on the artistic and entertaining potential of robotics in cultural productions. In the course of these investigations, I started developing artworks entailing singular bodily experiences such as being touched by a robot (The Blind Robot), being controlled by an exoskeleton (Inferno) and merging proprioception between machine and human (We were never different).

'Theatre has always been the test bed of illusions. The illusion of the actor replaced by a machine signifies the fantasies found in the scientific and the science-fiction communities. However, what I am targeting here is not the artifice but the uncomfortable communalities between the flesh and the mechanical bodies. Having these radical encounters at the liminal space bordering man and machine, it forces audiences to (re)consider their human bodies and the latest transforms in the history of their own embodied experiences'.
Louis-Philippe Demers makes large-scale installations and performances. His projects can be found in theatre, opera, subway stations, art museums, science museums, music events and trade shows. Over the past two decades, he participated in more than seventy artistic and stage productions and has built more than 350 machines.

Demers’ works have been featured at major venues such as Theatre de la Ville, Lille 2004, Expo 1992 and 2000, Sonambiente, ISEA, Siggraph and Sonar. He received five mentions and one distinction at Ars Electronica, the first prize of Vida 2.0, mentions at Vida 12.0 and 15.0, two jury recommendations at the Japan Media Arts Festival, the Interactive prize for Lightforms 98 and six prizes for Devolution including two Helpmann Awards.

Demers was Professor of Digital Media and Exhibit Design/Scenography at the Hochschule fuer Gestaltung Karlsruhe, affiliated to the world renowned Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM, Germany). Since he joined the Interaction and Entertainment Research Centre and the newly founded School of Art, Design and Media at the Nanyang Technological University.
www.processing-plant.com

Venue (Theatre/Gallery): Theatre
Booking: Free. ALL WELCOME. No booking required.

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