Interactive robotic swarm

A performative installation of 100 swarm robots enables visitors to experience the physical tactility of algorithms through interaction. The playful engagement with the omnipresence of AI and the future with robots provides the basis for knowledge transfer and exchange.

Interconnected is a performance of swarm robots and audience members. The interspecies performance uses swarm robots with changing lights, motion and real-time distributed sound synthesis (per robot). Adam and Katrin are playing different moods live for and with the audience. The audience is invited on stage, a huge circle forms the habitat of the robots. 3 cubes are distributed among the audience members. Who owns the cube is allowed to enter. The audience quietly has to self-organize the turn taking. Their role changes between spectator and actor. During the encounter with the artificial lifeform movement and position is used as shared language for interspecies communication. The reflecting lights on the black ground create a feeling of void. One looses perception of time and space during the encounter and opens up the cognitive tissue that binds both species.

The project is developed in cooperation with the Theater Dortmund, the Academy for Theatre and Digitality and the Kulturforum Witten. The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of New Arts Ruhr.

The project is was developed from January 2025 till February 2026 when it culminated in the premiere of the piece at Saalbau Witten.

Further details and documentation will follow soon!

Images © by Dana Schmidt

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