An image of a blue cartoon robot with arms and legs outstretched overlayed on the title of the podcast. Image by Kevin Ju

Dances With Robots - Teaser Trailer

Introducing Dances With Robots: a new podcast about dance, robots, bodies, and technology.

Episode 1 - The Nerd Gaggle

Welcome to Dances with Robots! In this introductory episode, Sydney Skybetter recounts the beginnings of the Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces, aka CRCI (pronounced Circe, like the Greek sorceress), and breaks down exactly how, and why, we work in dance and emerging technologies.

Episode 2 - Oh Great, the Nazis Were Into Modern Dance: A Conversation with Kate Gow

Kate Gow, CRCI’s archivist and web designer, sits down with host, Sydney Skybetter, to discuss historical intersections of dance and technology. Turns out that the weird history of class warfare at the ballet, dancers catching on fire, Degas, and Nazi choreographers has a lot to do with the dance of the future.

Episode 3 - The One With Tom Cruise

Sydney Skybetter interviews John Underkoffler, the Science and Technology Advisor for the 2002 movie Minority Report. We talk about how the infamous computer gesture scene that made John famous led to the founding of Oblong Industries, a company that tried to make Minority Report’s speculative interfaces a reality.

Episode 4 - Fierce on the Palm Pilot: A Conversation with Kamal Sinclair

Sydney Skybetter and producer Kamal Sinclair chat about the intersection of the cultural sector, emerging technologies, and the vintage hardware that shaped their childhoods. Are we all complicit in these complex cultural systems? Oh, and also, can we please bring back the Filofax?

Episode 5 - Choreorobotics 0101

Sydney Skybetter gives us an inside look into his research into chorerobotics; the overlap of choreography and robotic motion planning. He and the CRCI team ask questions about the risks and the implications of the work, and what it means to make a robot do the mashed potato.

Episode 6 - Dances with Robots IRL: A Conversation with Catie Cuan

Sydney Skybetter sits down with choreorobotics innovator, Dr. Catie Cuan. They discuss her personal and professional trajectory, and try to answer the question: why dance with a robot?