Dance Magazine: Robots often get a bad rap. "There's an impression that they're much more capable than they really are," says Catie Cuan. Whether it's a fear that "robots are coming for my job" or "robots are coming to kill me," Cuan believes those ideas are largely driven by how robots are portrayed in fiction and storytelling.
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Talk about an awesome way to bring the arts and STEM together! This is so fascinating to me, especially when she raised the point of how robots need to know and feel their presence and relationship in a space and people around them, which is exactly what dancers do as well. I know essentially nothing about the engineering or programming of robots, but it makes me smile to know that Catie Cuan is out there using STEM technology and knowledge to make robots move in new and improved ways. I love whenever the arts can be ingrained and welcomed into anything that has do with science and technology. I dream of a world where the two very different studies can be merged into one and learn to rely on one another more. Many STEM programs involve some kind of design, and these designs could be improved and reimagined greatly if someone from STEM took the time to let designers and other artists come to the table. On the other side of that, so many pieces of art, design, and sets could be transformed by using aspects of STEM in more ways then we ever thought possible. Robot choreographers is an amazing start to what can become a beautiful partnership.
Similarly to what Sarah says in her comment above, this is a really interesting way of bringing STEM and the arts together. I really respect having someone from such a creative background being a part of this process. One aspect that really stood out to me was when Catie Cuan commented on how she uses her skills to help robots move less threateningly. A lot of technology is working towards allowing robots to act more humanistic - yet the idea of humanoid robots is really frightening to many people - so anything they can do to make their presence seems less like a threat seems like a plus. The idea of this combination of dance knowledge allows for a very interesting perspective. You are allowing collaboration from people who understand how movement appears from a very objective perspective, but dancers feel movement - so they can help these robots seem more authentic in their interactions.
Yet another title that caught my eye and immediately confused and intrigued me. Robots? And choreographers? Dancing robots? Robots for dancers? Well, the article was super interesting and ended up making so much more sense then my initial confusion when reading the title. The idea of using dance experience to work with robots and make them human/user friendly is really interesting. It seems like that has been the direction we have been moving in, with more robots coming into use. But, I like how this article also bridges a mind gap of art and science. So often, people separate the two so far apart, but they actually work really well together and compliment each other as this article proves. Using the ideas of dance to work with robots and make them user-friendly and less threatening, as Cuan discusses. This was super intriguing I highly recommend reading this article!
What a cool article, if you ha asked me before reading this I would have thought the idea of a robot choreographer was aa punchline to a joke that wasn't particularly funny but now I really can conceptualize what an important role it has. I think this is a great example of demonstrating what artists can bring to the scientific community and how crucial their perspective can be, STEAM over STEM any day of the week in my opinion. Even in the world of technical design we can get so bogged down with the idea of the technical components to the project that larger picture issues dealing with practicality will escape us. Having another perspective that looks at things like overall movement and interaction is just as important as knowing what wires to put where and artists know a lot about perspective. It is also just great to see someone who is serving as a mentor and excellent example of how to combine two seemingly different things into an important and cohesive career opportunity.
One certain department within the school of computer science here at CMU always fascinated me like no other: the Human-Computer Interaction Institute. Like Cuan says, how people make contact with robots is important now that robots are not just mechanical labor machines, calling forward to the comment about her father. I would have liked to see a little bit more of the technical side of her work in that regard, but I assume that the nitty-gritty of programming a robot might not be right for the target audience. However, the message that this article chose to tell was a good one nonetheless. Getting people to realize that you don't have to ultimately choose between STEM and the arts and that some compromise is available is fantastic. As a physics major and drama minor, I know firsthand that it can be a bit odd when the worlds combine, but at the end of the day I feel like I am more engaged and active in using my brain. I believe that every student should have the equal opportunity to explore each side of their interests before we impose the academic restrictions on them that we do now. That is how we get more innovative and creative thinkers like Cuan.
This was so fun to read and such a cool look at a field (emerging field?) that I had no idea even had a reason to exist. After reading the article, it seems pretty obvious that a machine designed to either emulate humans or work around humans should have someone working on it who knows how humans move, and choreographers understand that. Not necessarily in a physiological sense, of which muscles and tendons are interacting with each other, but in the sense of ‘what’s going to look natural, what’s going to look the most human’. The problem with a lot of both CGI and robotics is that when we go for realism, we tend to run into uncanny valley territory, where the emulation of humanity is just slightly off base and makes people uncomfortable, often viscerally so. Employing choreographers to help design movements in a way to limit that uncomfortability could really help the robot move and interact in a way that feels more natural.
When I read the short blurb about the article, I immediately related. I am definitely someone who thinks robots and AI will become too intelligent and come for us one day. So naturally, I had to read on. I can’t believe someone’s job is a robot choreographer. It’s really amazing to me how she was able to embrace and combine both her love of dance and art with STEM. It was a good reminder that you don’t necessarily need to pick one passion over another. That is such a niche career that I never even thought existed. Her explanation does make sense though, “how something moves is even more important than how it looks.” I think that’s the main reason we can differentiate animatronics from humans currently. There are so many small responses that the human body has that most of us don't notice until they are gone.
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