“Here come the robots!” We’ve been seeing these headlines for years. Actually, bots are already everywhere in your life, often without you being able to see them – and now they are here in one of the last enclaves to be touched by automation, sensors, big data and little bots – the classical performing arts!
New Zealand has already identified the opportunities for the classical performing arts to fully embrace the technologies that are enabling other sectors. There are so many ways in which technology can enhance and transform the arts, but only if we have the proverbial cart before the horse. Let’s use robots to boost human artistic performance rather than to provide a poor imitation of the worst conductor!
There is a Cambrian Explosion about to detonate in terms of ArtsTech, but a baton-waving metronome will be one of the evolutionary dead ends. The point of automation is to ‘outsource the boring bits’, to get the bots to do the routine, repetitive stuff – to collect far more data points and analyse them far more smartly than humans ever will – so that humans can use that processed data to augment their performance.
We’re used doing this in sport and we’ve seen how it has changed our sports performance. We certainly didn’t invent a robotic (don’t go there) Steve Hansen to sit on the sidelines! We had the right humans in the right places AND we supported them with data for transforming the approach the team takes to every aspect of performance: nutrition, kit, training, psychology, tactics, presentation, audience engagement, on the field performance.
We have everything it takes to do the same in the classical performing arts. We can use our world-leading New Zealand tech capabilities in data and materials to support our wonderful, leading-edge New Zealand artists to transform every aspect of classical performance. New Zealand can lead the world in ArtsTech, using tech to transform classical performing arts for the 21st Century.
Contact Stephanie for further ArtsTech info.
