NOUS, le RADEAU / WE, the LUST: A Multidimensional Dance Opera Exploring Human Instincts and AI Innovations

NOUS, le RADEAU / WE, the LUST is a multidimensional danceopera that dives into human survival instinct and the future of humanity, including experimentation with the AI-Toolbox of PREMIERE EU research and innovation project.

At the entrance hall of the performance venue, a ledlight hologram body installation constantly learns and rearticulates motion and sound data from seven dance states of the performance to come, acting as an evolving memory of dance. On stage, a dancer embodies these very states, controlling live layers of sound with his body. WE, the LUST is ignited, manifesting a current of desire and madness, loss of control, suffering, joy and euphoria. As the lights fade, the dancer vanishes back in the hologram, which absorbs the data of his performance and reactivates it again for a next performance, in a never-ending upcycle.

On December 6, 2024, Philharmonie de Paris hosted the worldpremière of NOUS, le RADEAU / WE, the LUST by choreographers Emio Greco | Pieter C Scholten and composer Franck Krawczyk. The creation process integrated the AI-Toolbox, developed by Stocos in PREMIERE, during four Experimental Ateliers at AHK-IDlab in May–November 2024. An interdisciplinary team gathered around ICK’s ongoing research on ‘The Intuitive Body and AI’, exploring Motion Analysis, Sound Synthesis and other features of the AI-Toolbox.

The team experimented with sonifications of choreographic phrases and related performative states connected to each chapter of the performance. The states of each phrase were described and transformed into layers of melodies and contrasting sounds which were intuitively related to various body parts, inducing controlled and unpredictably emerging acoustic variations of the overall performance composition in dialogue with the dancing body. New digital instruments were developed and added to the AI Toolbox to create the performance and the installation. Each participating discipline (sound design, creative coding, choreography, composition, etc.) researched a shared language, enabling a meaningful and productive co-creation at the intersection of performing arts and new technologies.