R.O.T.C(Robot Theater Company)
The performance explores gravity, friction and human walking. It asks us about the meaning of being bipedal and walking on the ground. The steel plate stage suggests a possibility of new spaces and movements. It also shows an experiment of unique movements using the materiality of the steel plate and magnet.
Synopsis
his first performance of the series <On the Bird’s Day > deals with the “fear of the thirteen
Ahae.”[1]
While the thirteen Ahae in “Crow's Eye View” written by Korean poet Yi Sang symbolize people’s
anxiety during the tumultuous period of modernization in the early 20th century, the thirteen Ahae
in <On the Bird’s Day > refer to today’s fear which appeared somewhere in the 21st century. These
are
shamans who connect heaven and earth as well as divinity and humanity. Before starting their
journey to this world, the 13 Ahae are born with mechanical bodies and learn to walk on the
ground. Walking step by step and feeling gravity and friction, they move in the human way of
walking. Their movements become dances. The thirteen Ahae choreograph their own group dance in the
world on a steel plate.
[1] “Ahae” refer to the thirteen children depicted in the 1934 poem “Crow's Eye View” written by
Korean poet Yi Sang. “Ahae” is an archaic word meaning “child” in Korean.
Media artist sharing the sound of the world at the forefront of art and technology
Kwon Byungjun is a hardware researcher combining art with technology and a sound-based media artist.
In different cultural fields, he presents performances using tools of music and the performing arts.
Since 2018, he has developed robots for exhibition-type performances, thus exploring mechanical
movements and offering works combining light and sound, acts and narratives. In parallel, he suggests
new possibilities on stage through site-specific sounds involving GPS and the control of stage
lighting.
His major works include <Dancing Ladders > (2022), <Ghost Theater ‘We will Have a Serious
Night’ >
(2021), <Bold Theater > (2020), <Lyrics of Cheap Android 2_Robot Nocturne > (2020),
<‘Forest of
Subtle Truth’ Series >, <Self-sounding Town Resonant Village > (2019) and <Club Golden
Flower >
(2018). He won the prize for the artist of the year 2023 awarded by Korea’s National
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.
Concept·Direction·Sound·Technology DirectorKwon Byungjun
Creative TeamKim Taekmin, Lee Jumi, Lee Yujin
DramaturgHam Seongho
Lighting DesignerKim Hyun
Producer Park Jisun, Choi Bongmin
Produced byR.O.T.C(Robot Theater Company), Producer Group DOT
CommissionedSPAF, Arts Korea Lab
CooperationPlatform-L
Robot Theater Company is artists’ collective led by media artist Kwon Byungjun who collaborates with other artists and engineers. Having created multidisciplinary productions encompassing the theater, dance and music, Kwon Byungjun is willing to work with them in order to offer a new form of music theater where human performers coexist with robots he currently produces. By doing so, he will explore and develop the possibilities “Mechanical Theater” and the way machines and humans coexist on stage and in an exhibition space.