Sapient: A performance exploring the intersection of dance, robotics, humanness, and labor

Join us for an outdoor art performance by Interdisciplinary Artist Amenda Tate. While three dancers perform a Polka and a contemporary freestyle, Amenda’s robot, Manibus, will translate those movements to a canvas with acrylic paint. “The whole process is like becoming a record of the moment in time, capturing the energy that is transmitted during a live performance,” Tate says. “The project captures the movement and that turns the medium into a new art form.”

While Manibus is a robot, the works are based on human interactions during dance. 2020 marks the 100^th anniversary of the first use of the word robot in the Czech Play, R.U.R. (Rossom’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek. In addition to our exhibit, A Century of Robots: From Čapek to Now, this performance will commemorate the creation of the word that changed society forever.

Amenda Tate is a 2019 Iowa Arts Council Fellow. She has worked as an Artist-In Residence at New York Mills Cultural Center, Area 515 Makerspace, and with Ballet Des Moines.  Her works have been featured by various media outlets including the New York Times, WHO-TV 13 News, the Denver Post, the book Art Jewelry Today 2, Des Moines Register, Better Homes & Gardens, dsm Magazine, and Popular Science.  Special honors include a permanent collection commission by Arrow Electronics in conjunction with Cherry Arts and the Colorado Ballet, two Editor’s Choice Awards at the New York International Maker Faire, and special recognition award in the International RobotArt competition.