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AI

Autonomous Avatar at Festival der Zukunft

Autonomous-avatar-Tobias-Staab-Nadja-eller-Corey-Scott-Gilbert-dasniya-Sommer
On tour at ‚Festival der Zukunft‘ – enjoying our 10th show and arriving at a mind set where dancing becomes second nature. Walking on stage and just do it.

Date: Friday July 4, 2025
Location: Deutsches Museum München/ Planetarium
Time: 19 Uhr

Can machines learn on their own? Is an algorithm able to hallucinate? What if our lives were just a computer’s dream? The hybrid dance performance AUTONOMOUS AVATAR deals with these questions. Two performers discover their human bodies until they transcend into superhuman forms. The encounter with these new digital deities takes place on the threshold between analog and virtual realities.

Berlin-based artist Tobias Staab has developed the choreography together with the dancers Dasniya Sommer and Corey Scott-Gilbert. Using live motion capture technology, their organic physiognomies are combined with the immaterial bodies of the avatars. The texts were created on the basis of a story by Jorge Luis Borges and in close collaboration with various artificial intelligences. The spoken and sung sounds derive from on a number of voice recordings made with the award winning actress Sandra Hüller. The score was conceived and arranged by composer Beni Brachtel.

Direction, Text, Concept: Tobias Staab
The choreography was developed in close collaboration between Tobias Staab and the dancers Dasniya Sommer and Corey Scott-Gilbert.
Performers: Corey Scott-Gilbert & Dasniya Sommer
Voice: Sandra Hüller
3D-Design: Luis August Krawen
Music: Beni Brachtel
Stage Design & Concept: Nadja Sofie Eller
Costume Design: Annika Lu Hermann
Motion Capturing: Warja Rybakova
Light Design: Matthias Singer

Funded by: Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien / NEUSTART KULTUR, Dachverband Tanz Deutschland / tanz:digital. Produced with support by: DOCKdigitalLab, Planetarium Bochum

Autonomous Avatar Excerpt

Back to dancing Tobia’s Staab’s Autonomous Avatar at Planetarium Bochum. This time as solo. And no less adventurous to motion capture our creepy beauties (by Luis Krawen).
We experienced how fragile the technique still is. Big thanks to Warja Rebakova for translating my movement to the full dome. Where the avatars went their own way during our second show. They first obediently danced, crawled just as I do on stage as reference body surrounding the Zeiss Universarium IX projector ;). But suddently Sumo-ballerina jumped accross the dome hectically, flickering behind the emergency exit sign and didn’t reappear befor the show ended. These glitches and errors are most helpful with developing the piece further, but during the performance it gave me an massive sense of my tininess.

The next show will be in Berlin at A. MAZE festival / Silent Green on May 9th, 2024.