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A video work realized in collaboration between Rhizomatiks and Yaskawa Electric Corporation, a world-class industrial robotics company based in Kitakyushu,Japan.

Since ancient times, shadows have played a central role in many games and works of art. In a modern exploration of the expressive potential of shadow, this project used an industrial robot arm to create dancing shadows on a screen, based solely on the positioning of a pair of light sources and geometric objects. Employing lighting fade-ins, cut-ins, cut-outs, and other techniques, the project reconstructed the simple movements of two shadows and light as a compelling video work.

In the exhibition space, images of light and shadow danced across a 16:9 aspect ratio screen in sync with music. The two-dimensional shadows were created by a pair of light sources and cast by precision robot arms that moved two geometric objects shaped from the poses of dancers taken with a 3D scanner.

The result is an experimental attempt to primitively examine the relationship between light and shadow, 2D and 3D, human and robot movement, and the relationship between them.


*This artwork was commissioned for the exhibition "ART for SDGs: Kitakyushu Art Festival Imagining Our Future (2021).”