Could a robot become a successful actor? The case of Geminoid F

Ester Fuoco

doi:10.18778/1505-9057.65.11

Authors

Ester Fuoco Digital Humanities-Performing Arts, Post-doc Researcher at IULM University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1939-7100

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9057.65.11

Keywords:

android theatre, actroid, embodiment, entanglement, performing arts

Abstract

Could a robot be a good actor? Could it build an effective relationship of understanding and empathy with other actors or spectators? This paper offers just a glimpse, a first trace of research of a now important phenomenon that affects the Performing Arts, namely the integration of artificial agents both in the creative process and in the theatrical performance. It will be treated for this purpose by the example of the android Geminoid F, protagonist of the play Sayonara (2010) by Japanese director Oriza Hirata, created by Osaka University’s robotics expert Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, whose gestures have been learned by imitating those of a real professional actress. Watching this android act is an alienating aesthetic experience: from the position of the audience, the boundary between human and robot is unclear. Geminoid F was chosen as co-star in the film of the same name, shot in 2015 by the internationally acclaimed Japanese director Koji Fukada, precisely because of her expressive qualities, as effective as those of a human actor, capable of arousing an empathic reaction in the viewer.

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Author Biography

Ester Fuoco, Digital Humanities-Performing Arts, Post-doc Researcher at IULM University

Ester Fuoco – has a PhD in Digital Humanities and Histoire et Sémiologie du Texte et de l’Image. In 2022 she obtained the French qualification of Maitresse de conférences en Art du spectacle. In 2021, she won a research grant at the Institute of Biorobotics of the Scuola Superiore Sant’ Anna for robotic development and experimentation in the Performing Arts. She is currently a post-doc researcher at IULM University with a two-year project entitled Teatro Onlife: convergenze creative e di fruizione tra live, digital e transmedialità. She has held numerous seminars and conferences abroad and in Italy, and her research and publications are in the areas of Contemporary Performing Arts, Aesthetic of Digital Performance and Theatrical Anthropology. Her recent publications include the book: Né qui, né ora : peripezie mediali della performance contemporanea and the essays Rendre visible le mouvement du temps; Performance without Actors: The Theatrical Docu-Fiction; L’anamorphisme du corps béante sur la scène numérique; Carnefice o spettatore? L’ingaggio spettatoriale in The Repetition. Histoire(s) du théâtre di Milo Rau.

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