Alia: Zǔ tài (2017-2018)
Video
The video documentary of the performance Alia: Zǔ tài shows a group of humans and several artificially intelligent prostheses who build and destroy relationships with each other, during an unpredictable ritual of rejection and acceptance.
In this piece, the robots are intelligent machines that improvise their interactions with humans on stage in real time, protagonists of a performance that stages a reckless game of struggle, power, and vulnerability.
The work explores whether-- far from being passive devices-- "intelligent" software, body sensors, and robotic devices may in fact be affecting the physiological, psychological, and cultural basis of human life. The artist also asks: what kind of identities are produced by AI and robotics? How do these technologies influence the way we understand and distinguish human bodies? And: who is "normal" and why?
