Robot, personaggi e attori

Robot has gained a visibility in theatre and performance during the last two decades. Although the history of mechanical devices used as agents on stage can be traced farer in the past (as clockwork automata) or in the performance art experiments (as kinetic art), the switch of the new millennium has shown a specific concern toward the potential of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence. In contemporary world the robot has moved from a mythical sci-fiction element in narrative to an everyday life device and as such has walked on stage. The power of algorithm and the availability of commercial products has fashioned a new trend of performance experiments and ha give birth to robot that may intervene within the dramaturgical structure of the performance in ways that manifest a new artificial agency beside the more traditional human agency. Therefore it is possible to describe the presence of dramatic robots, meaning those elements of the show that has the ability to perform autonomously or semi-autonomously, able to enact a dramaturgy shared with human performer and aimed to the exposition of some narrative. The practices that we have encountered suggest that the artistic research moves on two directions: on the one hand, emphasizing the alterity of the artificial matrix (such as the powerful mechanical arms); on the other hand, the playing with the identity of human simulations (such as androids). Either way, the coming of robot age on stage provide a new perspective to discuss the notion of presence and the specificity of acting.