Robots, Schmobots ....

... It's all about the puppets:




Behold them resting up for their big trip to Cleveland, which commences in 5 short hours.

(PS to roboteers: No, no, it's about the robots, too. But mostly the puppets. Though there are also people in the show, actual human beings. Imagine that!)

Ron's Robo-Roundup

OK, so these aren't all technically robot-related items, just things that I've been bookmarking during the past few months of my stay in UbuLand and might not have paid much attention to were it not for my involvement with those wacky IPS folks and their various virtual worlds, security cams, and bearbots:

1. From BoingBoing, news of a Christian fundamentalist lawyer taking a brave stand against human/robot intermarriage.



2. From Gizmodo, a story about how Decatur, GA is creating a virtual version of itself. (Holy "Synechdoche, NY," Batman!) I find two aspects of the report particularly intriguing: the emphasis on commerce/capital, and the notion of "marking" referred to here:

Virtual Decatur is only in the planning stages, but designers have already listed a number of MMO-type qualities they'd like to see implemented. There would be custom avatars and chatting, like there is in any number of MMOs today, but in Virtual Decatur the residents, non-residents and government officials would bear certain marks, so that they'd be easily distinguishable from one another.

As a sworn robophobe, I hear "certain marks" and immediately think, "Yeah, of the BEAST," but in a less apocalyptic sense I'm also reminded of our discussions early on in the WoyUbu planning about how to cue audience members off as to which avatars/puppets/standins signified Pa Ubu. (Jarry's original drawings of Pa's spiral logo became the main indicator almost right away.)

3. From NPR, a profile of one-eyed documentary filmmaker Rob Spence, who is having his empty eye socket outfitted with a tiny camera. I can't seem to find a direct link to the interview where I first heard Spence discussing his project and the ethical implications he intends to raise, about both documentaries in general and about our surveillance-cam culture, but those same issues are bound to come up in just about any story on this "Zero Dollar Man," whose website is a treasure trove of media coverage. (Who watches the watchmen? Why, this guy, of course!)

Here's a video from the site that encapsulates the current status of his project rather succinctly. (Not for the squeamish--but if you're more freaked out about synthetic eyeballs than the very real ones that are surely tracking your every online move right now, suit yourself.) Theater and/or Mr. Show geeks, insert your own "I am a camera" pun here.


EYEBORG-- The Two Week Trial from eyeborg on Vimeo.



4. I have already written about Platform 21, a fascinating Dutch art/design collective here (and about another of their many projects here, but their "Checking Reality: A Real Show About the Virtual" practically has IPS/WoyUbu written all over it. Like all their endeavors, this one has many components grouped around a common theme (in this case, the politics of virtuality, you might say), including a 3D printer, computer-generated real/artificial jewelry, a trippy water feature that just might send Woyzeck off the deep end, a "CITY_KIT" game from Hybrid Space Lab that puts Virtual Decatur to shame, an audio-art DJ set using "natural" sounds and another "WiiJ" who uses WiiMotes to DJ, a dating service for avatars, and oh so much more. Parts of the "Checking Reality" description sound like they could describe WoyUbu as well:

Envision the world as a computer game in which your clothes are 3D projections and the GPS system tells you the position of an object. Imagine yourself as an avatar, flying through future cities and simulated landscapes. Now picture this virtual world in the real world. What will it look like then?

... Our use of digital media heavily influences the way we experience, test and create reality. Virtual alternatives are often so convincing that they not only augment reality but seem to replace it. It’s as if ‘virtual seeing is believing’.

I love these folks' sense of humor, particularly the fine line that separates actual objects/actions and conceptual pranks in their world. More, more, more, please!

Man vs machine, again

Driving home from last night's rehearsal, I was listening to a podcast collage of various talks by Krishnamurti, a writer I've heard both revered and reviled over the years, although I really know very little about his teachings. I was only half paying attention when this fragment, out of context, jumped out at me, triggering a number of only loosely connected responses:

We are so conditioned, so programmed, like computers, that we cannot learn something new. The computer can, but we can't. You see, the tragedy is that the machine that we have created, the computer, can learn much faster, infinitely more than [we] can, than the brain can. And the brain which has invented that ... ultra-intelligent machine ... hae slowed down, because we have [become conformists].

My first fleeting thought was, ugh, I still suck at learning lines. It's the bane of my existence! (Turns out at least three people have dreamed recently that I fucked up the show by forgetting my opening and closing speeches--the 4 paragraphs which constitute 98% of my scripted contribution to the show.) Then I recalled Sarah's blogpost about her first experience rehearsing with robots, who never "forget" what they are supposed to say or do; on the down side, they tend to shut down rather than make the most of a situation (like, say, creating new lines until they can find their way back to familiar turf and/or the next cue for somebody else). Is it even accurate to refer to robots or game characters as "actors"?

I also thought about the way that, for all of us in one way or another, WoyUbu is either a big or small step outside our personal comfort zones into "something new." It's easier for me as a performer to slip into the skin of a character if I can think and speak spontaneously as him or her than if I have a set of lines to memorize (which is the major reason my solo performances and Cabaret roles have been mostly improv for the last couple of decades, with a few exceptions now and then to keep me on my toes).

Somewhere in there I also made a connection between Krishnamurti's comments on the possibilities and limits of humankind and Buchner's, as expressed most directly through my character in the show. ("You are created of dust, sand, and shit. Why must you try to be more than dust, sand, and shit?!" The unspoken answer: Because the compulsion to transcend our humble origins is precisely what allows us to transcend them--what separates us from both monkeys and computer-driven robots.)

And while this has little to do with his actual point, the Krishnamurti quote also makes me think about how I've always heard it's harder to master a new language after you reach a certain age--an age I have clearly reached, although I really do want to learn one for the first time since high school. I also wonder if it's too late to get my brain to handle the large chunks of dialogue I could in the past (at one point in my mid 30s I somehow managed to memorize a trilogy of my own monologues--a whopping 4 1/2 hours of material!--and now I keep fumbling over 4 paragraphs). Clearly the brain is a muscle that requires and responds well to exercise, or else actors far older than me would be out of work.

If I were a computer, you could feed page after page of text into me and I would recite it exactly the same way, night after night. Only where's the fun--the challenge to conformity--in that?

The robot war begins to take shape

One thing new to all of us (as far as I know) with this production is the integration of robots and human actors. Personally, I'm trying to encourage bitterness and animosity between the two camps. (Me: "Those sons of bitches are only in the show for 5 minutes, tops, and they're total primadonnas.") But the humans who tend the 'bots are all lovely people. I'm sure they're only trying to ingratiate themselves with their future overlords. Fat chance, suckers!

On the bright side, we fleshfolk typically don't have to show up till half an hour after the robo-scum, so I shouldn't complain too much. When we unionize, I'm going to demand that we, too, get 45 minutes to boot up every night, and at least one crash per rehearsal. Also, when I forget my lines (a nightly occurrence thus far) I am going to spin around in circles for 5 minutes until I'm ready to give it another try.

Exit, pursued by a bear

SPOILER ALERT!



Details behind possible show-stealing moment revealed below. View at your own risk.

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Roboteer and director in conference:




A man and his dream:




The creature in all his unvarnished ferocity:

I'll drink to that

Can we have robobartenders in the "lobby" before the show, Uncle Stuart? Can we can we can we?




(found here)

Actually, I think being subjected to such humiliations as producing alcoholic beverages through one's simulated genitals and parroting whatever naughty talk intoxicated humans demand may well be what leads the roboslaves of today to rise up against us tomorrow.

Roombas of Doom

Several of us humans were talking about this clip from a recent Daily Show, which makes our own Robot War scene seem like a glimpse into the near future:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Future Shock - Roombas of Doom

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

PS. Having trouble seeing the clip? You can also click here.