An android with a soul

Robot enthusiasts were in for a special treat last weekend as “robotics philosophy” innovator Hiroshi Ishiguro gave a lecture titled “Robotics Towards the Future” at Chulalongkorn University’s Engineering faculty. He, along with his long-time collaborator, the internationally acclaimed playwright and director Oriza Hirata, are in Bangkok for the concluding performances on their 2015 Asian tour of “The Metamorphosis (Android Version)”, the latest work in their Robot Theatre Project and their sixth collaboration in as many years.

Theatre and robotics fans will recall that these two Japanese geniuses were here three years ago with “Sayonara”, a short play in which a humanoid recites poems on life and death to a young woman who is dying. Those same fans will no doubt be back in the theatre later this week in another mingling of scientific and artistic minds.

“The theatre gives us much knowledge on human likeness and helps us come up with more humanlike robots,” says Ishiguro of this unique interdisciplinary collaboration. 

“Cognitive science and psychology focus on very fundamental human functions and do not provide knowledge on human likeness in daily situations.”

Audience members will notice differences between the two androids: Geminoid F, who was modelled after an actual woman, in “Sayonara” and Gregor Samsa Repliee S1 in “The Metamorphosis”.

 “There are two ways to interact with robots. One is to carefully observe the humanlike robots and the other is to use one’s own imagination to interpolate missing information. The second way happens more often than not with a neutral appearance robot and the effect is very strong. People can read various emotions by using their own imaginations. And the Repliee S1 has such a neutral appearance,” Ishiguro explains.

Commissioned by the Automne en Normandie festival, where the play had its European premiere towards the end of last year following its world premiere in Kinosaki, Japan, “The Metamorphosis (Android Version)” is the first production created outside of Japan, and in French, of a play that includes a robot among its actors. 

Hirata, many of whose plays have been translated into French and performed in France, says the commission by the Normandy festival is why he’s working with the French cast members, “France chose me,” he laughs.

Adapted from Franz Kafka’s century-old novella “The Metamorphosis”, this new work is set in 2040. The point of departure reads, “One morning, Gregor Samsa is awakened by a nightmare and realises he has morphed into an android [instead of an insect in the original] in the night. He talks to his family about it, but they think he is actually hiding somewhere and controlling the android. His family doesn’t seem to understand, and they show only irritation and disgust.”

In his director’s statement, Hirata writes, “When I work with robots, I’m acutely aware of the existentialist thesis that ‘existence precedes essence’. I do not find that men and robots are all that different in essence. Robots are built in order to work, and their functions are very precisely modelled on human functions – so much so that nothing in their essence allows one to distinguish their functions from those of humans. When an audience member watching a Robot Theatre production asks the simple question ‘How close can robots get to being human?’, Professor Ishiguro, who develops robots for theatre, always answers ‘If you’re able to give me a definition of human, I will happily design a robot matching that definition’.

“It is true that human existence precedes meaning, outside of essence. If human existence is meaningless, robots cannot get infinitely closer to resembling them. After six years of working with robots in the context of theatre, I’ve developed the conviction that man dives headfirst into the world without any prior definition.

“One might say that Robot Theatre is just a new form of puppetry, since robots are machines and are familiar to us. We have nevertheless noticed that a lot of spectators do not see mere puppets in these robots, but instead tend to believe that they think, act and function autonomously.

“Sartre wondered how one could distinguish a person from a marionette. This philosophical problem is more topical than ever in the android era. If one supposes, along with Sartre, that our freedom is in constant friction with everyone else’s, humans will inevitably feel threatened by the evolution of androids, because the freer androids are, the more precarious human freedom will be. In robotics, the Uncanny Valley – a theory based on Freud’s famous text – shows that, at a certain point, when robots resemble humans too closely, the sympathy we initially feel towards them turns into anxiety. We humans are absurd beings who risk transforming ourselves into insects tomorrow. We humans are absurd beings who do not know how to distinguish man from android.”

Another magnet for the play is Irene Jacob, who won the Cannes Film Festival’s best actress award for her performance in “The Double Life of Veronique” and is performing with a robot for the first time in her illustrious career.

“Sometimes you feel it may be more than a robot, and sometimes ‘No, it’s definitely a robot.’ This kind of balance is interesting: you never know,” she told Agence France-Presse in a recent interview.

Joining the cast are French veteran performers Jerome Kircher, Laetitia Spigarelli, Thierry Vu Huu and Gregor Samsa Repliee S1, who neither carries a French passport nor needs a seat on the plane but instead this Saturday arrived in nine suitcases, weighing a total of 360 kilogrammes.

This interdisciplinary and intercultural project of sheer magnitude is produced by Seinendan Theatre Company and Osaka University Robot Theatre Project, presented by World Performances at Drama Chula and supported by Japan Foundation’s Asia Centre, the French embassy in Thailand, Kinosaki International Arts Centre, Tokyo University of the Arts, Chulalongkorn University’s French Language and Japanese Language sections, the faculties of Arts and Engineering, Creative Industries, Conscious Studio, Alliance Francaise Thailand, Goethe Institut, Gavroche Thailande Magazine, AETAS Residence and Caf? ShouldBe.

 

Theatre and more

“The Metamorphosis (Android Version)” is at Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts (10-minute walk from BTS Siam, Exit 6), from Thursday to Saturday at 7.30pm, with 2pm shows on Friday and Saturday. 

It’s in French with Thai surtitles, plus Japanese surtitles in the afternoon shows and English in the evening. 

Tickets are Bt600 (Bt300 for students; Bt400 for professional artists and audience members younger than 27) and available by calling (02) 218 4802 and (081) 559 7252. 

For more information, check the “Drama Arts Chula” page on Facebook.

-Oriza Hirata will conduct a playwriting workshop from Wednesday to Friday, 10am to noon at Creative Industries on the second floor of M Theatre on New Phetchaburi Road. Admission is free. Email [email protected] to register.

Irene Jacob will join the discussion after the screening of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Oscar-nominated “Three Colours: Red”, in French with English subtitles, on Wednesday at 7.30pm in Alliance Francaise Bangkok auditorium. Free registration at goo.gl/forms/L7rVlL1d0.