Artificial intelligence is only a 'collaborator', then I'll finish
We artists will never be useless
Interview by Anna Benedettini — The Republic
The reality is here, he is on another planet where avatars and drones live, he dances with algorithms and artificial intelligence, he studies neuroscience, physics and astrophysics.
Wayne McGregor is the internationally renowned volcanic choreographer who has been successfully exploring the new frontiers of dance technologies for over thirty years. Englishman, 54 years old, the smile of a good boy, awarded the title of 'Commander' of the British Empire, he is a teacher and a pioneer. On this double line he created successes at the Royal Ballet, La Scala, at the Met (he arrived on the 26th Woolf works, his cult with Alessandra Ferri), experiments with rock stars from Radiohead to Jon Hopkin, he has collaborated with the cinema for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and choreographed the four avatars of the legendary ABBA Voyage Show. A visionary convinced that new technologies are a reserve of innovation for dance. How will it be seen in the coming weeks: at the 67th Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, which opens on the 28th where McGregor, from 12 to 14 July, debuts with Deepstaria, a new creation with his dancers, fine heads of musical technologies and AI; then from 18 July to 3 August at the Venice Biennale Dance Festival, which he has been conducting for 4 years and where many hope for a reconfirmation.
Mr. McGregor, 'Deepstaria' is the name of a jellyfish, what does it have to do with your show?
“It is a beautiful creature, which changes shape, lives in the depths of the sea and generates itself. It evoked the theme of immortality in a poetic way, with resonances to the abyssal depths of the sea and to the sidereal depths of space. It is no coincidence that the stage will be a real black hole thanks to an extraordinary technology, the Vantablack, which creates the blackest black in the world. There you will dance to special sounds. Nicholas Becker, rumorist and Oscar winner, and the music producer Lexx have designed and used Bronze, an artificial intelligence sound composition system; the brilliant thing is that it produces recorded sounds that adapt to the live situation, so they change with each performance, even the dancers must in turn modify the movements. This keeps their physical sensitivity alert, alive. Which means that thanks to AI we have returned to the purest essence of the relationship between music and dance. With the dancers, we have also experimented with an artificial intelligence system with Google, which allows us to try new options for dance tracks, renewing the possibilities of movement.”
Doesn't all this science scare you?
Why? On stage you can see bodies, hopefully very beautiful, that make movements, hopefully wonderful with primal music. What does it matter if AI creates it? What matters is that there is a human hand. AI is only an 'augmented' collaborator: I am the one who then refines. We artists will never be useless, we must not be catastrophists. It is legitimate to open an ethical debate to fight against the Far West, not against technologies. Google or a cell phone, a pacemaker or a robot that cleans blood are forms of AI that have improved lives. It is a human teaching.”
And what role do artists play?
“The potential of AI can extend their creativity, invent new languages. Think of the dances on TikTok and Instagram. 0 to Leonardo with his flying cars on stage. Making art means exploring possibilities.”
Is it true that Deepstaria will have an even more technological following?
“Yes, in 2025, On the other Earth: the audience will be immersed in this incredible 'Future Cinema' by Jeffrey Shaw, the first interactive post-cinema screen, 60 meters, 360 LEDs, augmented reality, 3D, tactile technology, and where you can experience dance in another way.”
AI is also in the choreography he is preparing for the Venice Biennale. What is it about?
“We are working with my dancers and sixteen fantastic students from Biennale College in a special place, the large room of the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido without the seats and on a large stage. I was inspired by the first film seen at the Film Festival in the 1930s, Doctor Jekyll, in which the director used an innovative technique for makeup color filters.”
More technology. And yet the title of the festival is 'We human', we humans.
“It's a reminder at this time of political turmoil. I wanted to show that humanity is always one, even if it has different ways of acting and cooperating. All artists show humanity in practices, collaborations, experimentations such as the Golden Lion Cristina Caprioli or in emotion like the silver one Trajal Harrell. As for AI, to explain what I mean, there will be an incredible film, De humani corporis manufactures: a journey into the human body, in which you see its delicacy and extraordinary technology. This is humanity: fragility and ingenuity.”