Israel Galván + YCAM “Israel & イスラエル”

ABSTRACT

Israel Galvan is a legendary Spanish dancer/choreographer, who revolutionized the art of flamenco by introducing various modern themes and ideas into the tradition.

Galvan premiered his latest experimental dance performance, “Israel & イスラエル”, a result of a two-year-long collaboration with YCAM (Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan). Qosmo was in charge of machine learning and artificial intelligence system development.

イスラエル—Israel in Japanese—suggests that the Japanese-made AI exists as an alter ego of Israel.

Is AI a threat for artists? Or is it just another performer? How can we use AI to extend Galvan’s virtuosity? How do we train the model? These were the challenges we faced when we joined the project, leading the machine learning and artificial intelligence system development.

In order to expand Galvan’s creativity, we focused on his characteristic precise and fast step patterns called “sapateado” and developed AI models that could learn to imitate them.

The AI-generated rhythms were translated into actual sound by custom made robots YCAM developed for this project. The physical vibration signified the presence of the invisible AI performer.

In the performance, these AI models performed together with Galvan himself.

Nao Tokui wrote the article about the detail of the AI model and the technical approach in this project. Check out his article too. (“AI and a renowned dancer performed together — Can AI stimulate the dancer’s creativity? “)

TECHNOLOGY

Galvan is known for not dancing with other flamenco dancers, contrary to the typical style of flamenco.  

“I don’t want to get stuck in the tradition.”

On several occasions when we played him the rhythm patterns our AI models had generated, he told us that “they were still too flamenco.” Consequently, we tried to train AI models in many different architectures and settings again and again.  

Training an AI depicting Galvan’s characteristics based on his step pattern data, while at the same time not mirroring him directly but somewhat deviating from them, was one of the biggest challenges. We believe that the trained model was able to help him to extend his creativity as a dancer and inspire novel ideas in him. 

“It didn’t feel like a flamenco dancer, nor even a human being. I felt like dancing with an unknown creature. I sometimes forgot the fact that I’m alone on stage.”  

According to his comment after the premiere, we assume that our attempt was successful and meaningful. 

As our previous show, AI DJ Project, the dance performance, “Israel & イスラエル” is a project in which we tried to enhance human creativity through intangible communication between human and AI systems. 

PERFORMANCE
ARCHIVES

Date	Place
2019/02	Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan[YCAM]
2019/10	Maison de la Culture du Japon à Paris. Paris France

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LINKS

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ARTICLES

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CREDITS

• Direction, Choreography & Dance

  Israel Galván

• Cast

  Richi Owaki (YCAM), Rie Okada

• R&D Direction

  Takayuki Ito (YCAM), Richi Owaki (YCAM)

• Technical Direction

  Richi Owaki (YCAM), Junji Nakaue (YCAM), Pablo Pujol (Israel Galván Company)

• Production Management

  Clarence Ng (YCAM)

• Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence System Development

  Nao Tokui (Qosmo, Inc.), Miyu Hosoi (Qosmo, Inc.)

• Data Capturing System Design & Development

  Mitsuhito Ando (YCAM)

• Visual Development

  Satoru Higa, Ryo Kanda

• Device Design & Development

  Kanta Horio, Alberto Boem, Keina Konno & Richi Owaki & Hoshiro Ando (YCAM), Pablo Pujol (Israel Galván Company)

• Sound Engineering

  Junji Nakaue (YCAM), Pedro Leon (Israel Galván Company), Mitsuhito Ando (YCAM)

• Additional Compositions Extracts

  Ikue Mori

• Video Engineering

  Richi Owaki (YCAM), Keina Konno (YCAM)

• Stage Set

  Hoshiro Ando (YCAM)

• Lighting

  Fumie Takahara (YCAM)

• Lighting Program & Network Construction

  Yohei Miura (YCAM)

• Assistant Director & Script

  Miguel Álvarez-Fernández

• Hair Makeup

  Sayano Tani

• Coordination

  Rie Okada, Asumi Kitahori (YCAM)

• Interpreter & Translation

  Rie Okada

• Delegate Producer

  Akiko Takeshita (YCAM)

• Co-producer

  Pilar Lopez (Israel Galván Company)

• ※The project was made collectively among the members above regardless of the credits.

• Technical Support

  Yano butai

• Education Program

  Daichi Yamaoka & Soma Ishii (YCAM)

• Public Relations

  Momoko Aoyagi & Nanami Hashimoto & Satomi Okazaki (YCAM), Tomoko Yotsumoto (Sankai Production, LLC)

• Documentation

  Tomoya Watanabe (YCAM)

• Legal Consultant

  Tasuku Mizuno (CITY LIGHTS LAW)

• Administration

  Kiyomi Arifuku & Yuriko Asamoto (YCAM), Rosario Gallardo (Israel Galván Company)

• Co-production Coordination

  Pilar Lopez (Israel Galván Company)

• Organizer

  Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion

• Co-developed

  YCAM InterLab

• Association

  Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education

• Support

  the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, Japan Arts Council, Embassy of Spain in Japan

• Produced by

  Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] & Israel Galván Company