Un/Real bodies: An Exploration of Synthetic Embodiment

This research addresses a growing gap between technological innovation and the ways embodied knowledge from the arts is integrated into that development. AI and robotics increasingly turn toward artistic practices for insight into movement and human interaction. Yet in many of these collaborations, artistic knowledge is treated primarily as a resource for technological development rather than as a practice capable of critically challenging its assumptions. 

Current debates around artificial intelligence also expose how inconsistent our notions of personhood and agency are. Some argue that if an artificial system were to be considered conscious, it should also be granted certain rights. Yet human societies already attribute legal personhood to entities such as corporations while withholding it from many living beings. The emergence of synthetic systems therefore exposes how much our ideas about what qualifies as a body or a conscious being are flexible and based on human assumptions. 

Recent years have seen a growing intersection between choreography and robotics across both artistic and research contexts. Within the emerging field of choreorobotics, researchers such as Catie Cuan explore how choreographic knowledge can inform expressive robotic movement. In the performing arts, artists including Ugo Dehaes, Huang Yi and Blanca Li have staged encounters between dancers and robots, often looking into questions of machine performance. Moreover, CORPoREAL builds on relevant expertise within its network, including Klaas Devos’s doctoral research on technosomatic approaches to dance improvisation and the integration of technology in embodied artistic practices, informing broader questions around embodiment, and knowledge transmission.