Unfortunately, this event has had to cancel and will no longer be running.

Remember the last time you negotiated an automatic revolving door – the attentive dance of not too fast, not too slow?

Our everyday movements are filled with seemingly natural – or at least unselfconscious- dances with systems in our homes, work environments, schools, streets, shops, public areas and more. We both design systems to move with us and we have in turn learned how to move with them.  Robotic and autonomous systems are our next partners; we are already incorporating them into our repertoire of everyday systems dancing. 

Join researchers from the School of Cybernetics to explore how relationships and choreography between people and autonomous systems are created. You will experiment with partnering and moving with virtual drones projected on giant screens.

Will your partnered movements expose your two left feet or your comfort and confidence with each other? Will onlookers recognize your system dance or see awkward, disengaged egoists doing their own things?  Both fun and serious, you’ll explore how moving with a system requires more than just behaviour or doing, but also creating a relationship, through communication, iterative feedback and turn taking. 

This interactive session is informed by research with the Australasian Dance Collective on how expressions of emotion and rapport emerge in drone and artist performances in Lucie in the Sky which will be showcased at the Canberra Theatre Centre July 14-15. In Lucie, six dancers, five drones, and endless emotions and relationships emerge in an hour-long performance during which audiences are invited to explore empathy, power, vulnerability, understanding, and rapport in how we relate with advanced computing systems now and in foreseeable futures.