Eliza ChaikinEID 11115 December 2000

Project Summary

This project consists of several proposals for an interactive robotic stage. The projects all involve an interactive dialog between the actors and the stage. The actors must read and respond to the changes the stage makes and the stage will respond to the movements of the actors and their relationships to each other. The robot technically needs an eye, a database of images, and a projector. I’m interested in the robot as a non-personality object; it is not a character and its personality is defined by the images

it projects not by its physical characteristics.

Project 1 .. Doorways

Doorways is a linear series of images of doorways. The images range from well known paintings to digital photographs of Cooper Union to photographs of well known architectural spaces. The actor, or participant, does not know his lines or his choreography. The actor must read the background that the robot projects and respond accordingly in order to advance their conversation. In Doorways the actor must stand in the virtual doorway for the robot to change the scenery. The robot will then change to a new scene and the actor must physically move to the next virtual doorway to advance the plot / conversation.

Project 2 .. Close-up

In Close-up the robot measures the actors distance from the back screen and projects one image at varying scales. When the actor moves closer to the screen image scale gets smaller and when the actor walks away from the screen the image gets larger. From the vantagepoint of someone in the audience the relationship between the actor and the background visually remains the same. Depth is flattened to the audience no matter how the actor moves. Basically the set is following the actor around the stage.

Project 3 .. Acting Relationship

Acting Relationship requires one screen and at least two actors. The background projection changes in accordance to the spatial relationship between the actors. The actors learn about their relationships to each other by reading how the images on the background change. The robotic set designer may want to create a feeling of tension between the actors so it may project a cold and sterile environment. Hostility / boxing ring. Romance / candle lit dinner. Academics / school room. Etc. The actors could ad lib accordingly.

Project 4 .. Charades

Charades requires two actors and two screens. The actors play simultaneously. Actor A plays with screen A while actor B plays with screen B. On both screens A and B two different images appear. The images are of spaces that define a certain type of activity, golf course / playing golf.

The player must act out the action described by the image, when he acts correctly the robot changes to the next scene. The winner is the one to finish first. Since the robot is the judge, the actions of the players has to be very generalized and exaggerated. Even though the actions of the player may be understood by an audience the player must communicate his actions to the robotic judge, thus perhaps creating a new type of body language for human / robotic relationships.