Hosted by Vittoria Ottolenghi, a prominent ballet critic who served as a dance editor for the Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo for ten years. In 1956, she began her career as a dance critic for Paese Sera, later contributing regularly to other newspapers (such as Il Mattino of Naples, Il Resto del Carlino of Bologna, and the Qui Roma insert of La Stampa of Turin) and to magazines including L'Espresso, Musica Viva, Balletto Oggi, Anna, and Prima Fila. Since 1960, she has been working with Rai-TV, involved in the creation, editing, and production of programs, primarily focused on dance.
Exploring mechanical and robotic art, Canadian artist Louis-Philippe Demers creates mechanical devices that transform movement, sound, and chromatic reflections into a singular experience straddling the line between installation and performance. His machines dance, developing mechanical movement that evolves from mere functionality into artistic forms. But do these machines want to dance?
Robots dance contrary to their nature. Their nature would be mere functionality, but Louis-Philippe Demers subjects them to the effort of functioning without purpose: he forces them to dance, to move without fusion and without result. The mechanical devices designed by the Canadians Louis-Philippe Demers and Bill Vorn—one a media artist, the other a composer—transform movement, sound, and chromatic reflections into an experience suspended between art and performance.
The robots dance but do not have human-like forms. They resemble industrial machines more and their behavior does not aim to replicate human actions: in their mechanical coordination, they continue to respond to stimuli as programmed. Yet they dance with all their weight and noise, and they almost seem compelled to do so.
Following this, Paolo Fiorini, a professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Verona, will present, in collaboration with the Museo Civico di Rovereto, several videos showcasing the latest advancements in the field of humanoid robots as presented at various editions of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
