Alia: Zǔ tài is a ritual of acceptance for three mongrel bodies. Through a reckless play of power and vulnerability, a group of humans and artificially intelligent prostheses build and destroy their relationships.
Alia: Zǔ tài is a piece combining dance theatre and biophysical music with state-of-the-art AI robotics titled ‘C‘. Three humans and two AI robots inhabit an aseptic space, whose uncanny whiteness is interrupted by neatly ordered computer screens, cables and circuit boards. As in a lucid dream, a woman nurses one of the robots, a primitive form of sensuality hidden behind an apparently everyday routine. The robot responds to her, caressing her with sinuous movements, wagging its limbs, moving as an eerie, alive piece of metal. Taking its title from the Latin “alia” – the other – and the Chinese “zǔ tài” – configuration, Alia: Zǔ tài unleashes the violence and celebrates the frailty of both the human being and AI technology.
‘C‘ robotic body-prosthesis consist from segmented metameric body-parts and antennae-like jointed segments.
Concept, direction, music – Marco Donnarumma
Choreography, research – Nunu Kong
Dramaturgy, performance – Marco Donnarumma, Nunu Kong
Performance – Lingling Chen
Robotic body-prosthesis – Ana Rajcevic
Stage production – Andrea Familari
Light design – Eduardo Abdala
CAD modelling and printing – Christian Schmidts
Neurorobotics Research Laboratory, Beuth Hochschule – Scientific partner
Dario J Laganà | norte.it, Underskin Photography – Photography