What happens when a computer has creative control of six dancers?
Photo by David Kelly edited by Alisdair Macindoe
The theatre darkens and the lights come up on a performance that is completely unknown - for not just the audience, but the dancers too.
Welcome to Forgery, where a complex series of algorithms and cutting-edge technology dictate each performance - a show that’s directed entirely by computer and is different every single performance.
Developed by award-winning Australian dancer, sound designer, choreographer and creative coder, Alisdair Macindoe, the six Australasian Dance Collective dancers will be fed instructions live on stage. The program’s algorithms are also in charge of lighting, costumes and music. From opening night to closing, every show will be completely unique.
For ADC’s world-class company artists, it’s dance without a safety net.
“Standing in front of hundreds of people who are expecting a performance, with no idea about what you are going to do is probably one of the hardest things a performer can do,” Macindoe says.
“That's probably why I find Forgery so exciting and challenging. But I have always felt that contemporary dance lends itself well to processes that ask the artists to grow and flex around a concept that expands on what dance can be. I think there is a shared love and hate for the idea, as it presents as simultaneously freeing and completely impossible at the same time.
“The ADC dancers are exceptional artists, who literally are able to create new works on the spot. I am baffled by the flexibility of their minds, their ability to intuit a collective intention and their skills as trained movement experts.”
While it is equal parts terror and excitement for the dancers, Macindoe says it will also be an adventure for Brisbane Festival audiences.
“There is a thrill in knowing what you are seeing is genuinely and authentically being created in front of you. But even if you didn't know or didn't care, there is an unexplainable beauty in the observation of human reactivity. You could put it down to our innate need to empathise with other humans, I don't really know what it is, but I get the same feeling watching a good game of tennis,” he says.
Forgery was developed in late 2020, while Melbourne-based Macindoe was enduring more than three months of lockdown. However, with the algorithm in charge of the choreography, the ADC dancers only needed a computer in the Brisbane studio with them, not an in-person choreographer. Macindoe simply watched rehearsals via zoom and let the computer do the rest.
“I was lucky to have an already established interest in programatic dance making, so adapting to COVID was quite seamless,” he admits.
Macindoe encourages audiences to come multiple times as each performance will be unique and contributes to a greater understanding and appreciation for the creative process.
“Forgery invites you into an experiment, where the outcome of each show becomes part a bigger picture, and the more shows you attend, the bigger that picture becomes,” he says.
ADC Artistic Director, Amy Hollingsworth, says Forgery is a courageous work that poses questions about creative agency in our digital age.
“Art has been, is, and will always be, a profound way for us to process how we feel. It not only aids in envisaging the future, but how we fit into it. The interlacing of arts and tech keeps humanity firmly embedded in the technology, which is imperative. A work like Forgery not only invites people to be completed included in a unique experience, but it also illustrates ADC’s commitment to redefining our boundaries and reimagining the way we connect with our audiences,” she says.
“Alisdair is an extraordinary artist – a gifted performer, communicating with an inspiring physicality, but he also possesses quick intelligence and immense curiosity. His breadth of skills and interests has resulted in a unique and compelling choreographic voice - a maker who is able to coalesce dance, music, coding into truly exhilarating experiences for audiences.”
About the technology
Forgery has been created by a computer algorithm designed in collaboration with the ADC dancers.
This algorithm harnesses Macindoe’s most recent venture into computer generated dance using his custom website designed as a framework for socially distanced collaboration.
The site, built in collaboration with software developer and dance artist, Josh Mu, houses Macindoe's method for generative dance technology and has allowed for the recent contactless development of Forgery.
AID (artificially intelligent dances) uses context free grammar maps written in Backus Naur form, with additional functionality Macindoe developed to generate sentences that are spoken using text to voice (computer voice), to guide performers through a performance.
Put simply, AID is a computer program that creates sentences, and then says them out loud to a group of performers.
Forgery explores the potential for decision making to be relinquished to a computer in the creative process and live performance situation to pose questions about creative agency in the digital age.
Each performance of Forgery is unique as the performers are fed the instructions of what to do live on stage and the design elements like lighting and music are also controlled by the computer.
About Alisdair Macindoe — Choreographer/Creator
Alisdair Macindoe is an Australian dancer, sound designer, choreographer and creative coder.
His experience in these fields has taken his work to many countries around the world, earning critical acclaim in the media and receiving local and international awards including five Greenroom awards, a Helpmann and a New York Bessie.
Notable collaborations include his work as a dancer for Lucy Guerin, Chunky Move, Antony Hamilton, Stephanie Lake and Dancenorth, and his work as a sound designer for Chunky Move, Antony Hamilton, STOMPIN and Dancenorth.
His choreographic work includes commissions for Dancenorth, Lucy Guerin, Next Wave, Performance Space and STOMPIN.
As a multidisciplinary artist, whose work spans performance and technology, the intersection of humans and technology is one of his reoccurring interests.
FORGERY
Wednesday, 22 September — 7:30pm
Thursday, 23 September — 6:30pm
Friday, 24 September — 6pm & 8:30pm
Saturday, 25 September — 2pm & 8pm
Wednesday, 29 September — 6:30pm
Thursday, 30 September — 6:30pm
Friday, 1 October — 6pm & 8:30pm
Saturday, 2 October — 6pm & 8:30pm
Cremorne Theatre, QPAC
Tickets 136 246 qpac.com.au