Airman

Airman is an exhilarating duo performance between mankind and technology in which the human consciousness is explored. This innovative piece focuses on the question of what human consciousness would look like when represented by technology.

In Airman, technology is embodied by a group of drones. The independently moving dancer and the sometimes seemingly independently moving drones create an alienating atmosphere because of the deceptive degree of freedom and independence with which the drones appear to move. This at times almost autonomous dance of the drones raises the deeper question to what extent the drones possess a form of free will, the philosophical theme that Middendorp wants to explore in its confrontation with artificial intelligence.

Technologically, Airman is a continuation of Another Kind of Blue’s earlier piece ‘Newton’s Duet’ for which a motion-capture operating system has been developed that can control two drones simultaneously. In Airman, this system has been expanded to twelve drones, which have a unique live interaction with the dancer.