Editorial: Creating An Animatronic Portrait Of A Street Dancer

Hanson Robotics presented a video demonstration of a robotic portrait of author Phillip K. Dick a few years ago at the annual TED conference. Using a humanoid figure, the engineers infused the robot with audio and text transcripts from the author, creating an eerie replication of his personality with which an audience could interact. What if we created robotic/animatronic portraits of street dance OGs and pioneers? There may come a time when robotics engineering becomes so advanced that the visible differences between a human and a robot will be negligible. In that possible future, how will our dance culture and education be affected by robotics? (Photo above is from a Google Images Search for the Honda ASIMO robot.)

It’s funny that some of the original pioneers in poppin’ embraced robotting as a style. The clean isolations and hard dimestops distinguished them from the funkiness of lockin’, although Slim the Robot from the Lockers was known for a reputable command of his robot. Today, we can wonder what would happen if we learned the original styles from artificial intelligence. Imagine a highly mobile, physically versatile, animatronic version of an OG dancer like Skeeter Rabbit or Fred “Penguin” Berry teaching a future generation. These resurrected versions would teach based on data compiled from movement data and motion capture information based on the original teachers. It’s a giant leap to imagine this scenario but it could offer some interesting possibilities for the future growth of street dance.

There are some complications. We have to explore whether these resurrected versions would simply teach the concepts as established by the original teachers or if they could evolve and adjust these lessons. If they don’t evolve, then these new teachers would be historical records of the original styles. They would preserve history. If they evolve, then it’s a whole other ball game. Now, we’re entertaining how an advanced form of artificial intelligence could inspire humans to move. We see past and current examples of poppers creating movements inspired by cartoons, machinery, and animals. So is it such a big jump to imagine these advanced robots teaching dance to future humans?

Many science fiction stories have explored the fusion of human life with artificial intelligence. Is there a future for street dance in this possible universe? Our dance culture has always been influenced by our social context and cultural trends. Youtube is a social networking and video sharing phenomenon that has changed the perception of street styles worldwide. In a future where artificial intelligence lives side by side with humans, we can imagine how dancers will react to this through their dancing. By then, our science fiction fantasies will be closer to becoming a reality.