Human_oid

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“Performing together is an intimate process. Having robots or machines as dance partners means developing your own way of understanding your body and developing language of movement. The fragile connection with a lifeless piece of matter becomes an uncanny experience. It is performing with the nonhuman in us humans." (Eva-Maria Kraft, 2019) For almost 3 years I have been developing as part of the transdisciplinary research group H.A.U.S. - Humanoids in Architecture and Urban Spaces (TU Wien) performances, lecture performances and interventions with humanoid robots (Model Pepper). Since then we showed 18 different performances in theaters, galleries, in academic contexts, in open space and online. The main interest of my artistic and choreographic work lies in the analysis of the movements of humanoids and the transfer of movements to the human body and vice versa. What happens when we acquire the machanical as a quality of movement and this begins to embody? Can the human become non-human? Does this create a new aesthetic in the performance? Another focus is on live improvisation with the robots. Here we exhaust the functions where the robots act as autonomously as possible and not in a predictable or programmed way, and this is where research on the interaction between humans and machines. Eva-Maria Kraft, BA Contemporary dancer, choreographer and dance teacher Eva-Maria Kraft researches and teaches topics such as perception, presence, transparency, immersion and communication and their implementation in movement. She has been dancing since she was three, studied at Konservatorium Wien PU/MUK and has been working as a freelance dancer since 2005. She runs her studio RAUM für TANZ and a practice for nutrition and cranio sacral bodywork in Vienna. Eva-Maria Kraft teaches contemporary ballet, contemporary dance, improvisation, Chladek® technique and nutrition for dancers internationally for beginners, in professional dance educations, at universities and for professional dancers. Her artistic projects move at the interface of different art fields and science, i.a. the Instant Composition Performance series POETIC SPACE and as part of the transdisciplinary research group H.A.U.S. she choreographs and performs with humanoid robots. www.evamaria-kraft.at h-a-u-s.org

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WID Lectures

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