'Breathless: Catie and the Robot' — live event
With musical accompaniment, the performance contrasts the beauty, strength, and frailty of the human body with the relentless precision of machinery, featuring choreography that alludes to the essential lifting, cleaning, caring, and maintaining motions performed by workers every day. Drawing inspiration from the photography of Eadweard Muybridge, the avant-garde cubism of Marcel Duchamp, and Frederick Taylor's quantization of human work, Breathless also invokes American feminism within the Labor movement and the xenophobia implicit in the controversial "Great Replacement" Theory. In the debut of their ambitious new piece, Cuan and fellow artist and UC Berkeley engineering professor Ken Goldberg address the historical, cultural, and emotional complexity of our collective fears about artificial intelligence and the future of human labor, with the significant technical gaps that remain between science fiction and contemporary robotics. At the conclusion of the eight-hour ritual, Cuan will sit down with Goldberg and NS+ Curator Elena Park for a conversation, including audience Q&A. Audience members will be welcome to enter, exit, and move about the space over the course of this performance. The NS+ series is made possible by the generous support of Kathryn and Emmanuel Morlet and the Westcustogo Foundation. Breathless is also sponsored, in part, by UC Berkeley’s AUTOLab. Thanks to Universal Robots Inc for graciously loaning a UR5 industrial robot arm. Breathless was developed, in part, during a Jacob's Pillow residency. About NationalSawdust+ Often topical and always imaginative, NationalSawdust+ is a lively performance and conversation series in which artists and thinkers share their passion for music and explore timely ideas, making surprising connections. Since National Sawdust’s inception, NS+ has been a home for intimate stories and unexpected artmaking, blurring boundaries between genres and disciplines. Last season, NS+ presented For Nature, three programs with artists and musicians, scientists, and activists spotlighting works connected to ocean, land, and the animal kingdom; native and indigenous wisdom; and recent research and ways forward. Curated by Elena Park, NS+ taps luminaries from theater, film and visual art, literature, science and beyond, to create insightful programs that reflect their own interests. Guests have included Jad Abumrad, Ava DuVernay, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Min-Jin Lee, Yo-Yo Ma, Nico Muhly, Carl Hancock Rux, Gabriella Smith, Patti Smith, esperanza spalding, Carrie Mae Weems, Marina Abramovic + Laurie Anderson, and Caroline Shaw + Anthony Roth Costanzo + Gandini Juggling. Jeff Tang is consulting producer for the series.
Starts: 2023-12-16T14:00:53Z
Ends: 2023-12-16T23:00:53Z
Where: 80 North 6th Street, New York 11249, United States
Price: $19.14