Edit by Atsushi Tanabe
Courtesy of Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Israel Galván is a legendary Spanish dancer/choreographer, who revolutionized the art of flamenco by introducing various modern themes and ideas into the tradition. Galvan premiered his latest experimental dance performance, Israel & Israel, a result of a two-year-long collaboration with YCAM (Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan).
Israel & Israel, a new performance by Spanish flamenco dancer Israel Galván and the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] (hereafter YCAM) was performed in February 2019. At the request of YCAM and Qosmo, the company responsible for developing the machine learning and artificial intelligence system, we created a device to perform steps generated from AI learning in the physical world.
Solenoide
Photo by Yuki Moriya
Courtesy of Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
A device that regenerates fast and accurate steps, commonly known as a "solenoid".
By charging 300 VDC and instantly overdriving the solenoid for 100 VAC at the trigger timing, fast response and strong blows are achieved.
Perrito
Courtesy of Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Four solenoids were attached to a single housing so that it could move around. Its nickname was a perrito (puppy). It became a device that added certain physical properties to the patterns created by machine learning.
Courtesy of Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Lavadora
Together with Richi Owaki and Hoshirō Ando from YCAM, we also conducted a dangerous experiment using a washing machine. This one didn't involve much machine learning, but was an object to challenge the dancers physically.
It was thoroughly modified, and eventually the original control circuitry was discarded and replaced with an inverter for a Toshiba three-phase motor, and a device was built and controlled to relay the inverter's Modbus and Open Sound Control.
The device appeared on stage, but it had no trace its original form. You may not be able to tell which part of the stage the device appeared in, even if you saw it.