Articulating contemporary tensions between man and machine, the performance Centaur, is a modern dance piece that utilizes machine learning technology in an exploration into the consequences of modern day artificial intelligence and the power of technology in a clash between creators versus their creation.

Centaur is developed by critically acclaimed artistic director and choreographer Pontus Lidberg in collaboration with AI-artist Cecilie Waagner-Falkenstrøm and Ryoji Ikeda, Japan’s leading electronic composer and audio-visual artist.

Inspired by the half-horse half-human creature from Greek mythology, the concept of the modern Centaur is also the name of the computer-science concept relating to the elevation of natural human qualities through the combination of both artificial and human intelligence.

To this effect the artwork scrutinizes what happens when the creative power of artificial intelligence entangles with a set of 9 dancers each night through a machine learning based installation live on stage. Throughout the performance the dancers encounter a unique ARTificial intelligence, programmed exclusively for the performance by artist Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm and her team of software developers and data scientists. The ARTificial intelligence is both co-creator and participant in the performance, as it influences choreographic composition based on various data sets such as planetary movements, swarm technology and the dancers’ previous movements as they have been tracked and collected throughout the creative process. As a performer, the artificial intelligence can simulate consciousness, emotion and intention as it interacts with the dancers on stage. This means that each performance is a unique and unpredictable event — a neat allegory to our human relationship with technology.

Throughout the process and rehearsals, the technology and humans have been working closely together. Human created compositions have been deconstructed by the machine and vice versa in an ongoing process of creation with the final result being something entirely new that neither the choreographer nor the artificial intelligence algorithm could have anticipated. There is no divisible point where the human creation ends and the machine takes over – both are entangled.