* For this research in Het LAB, Willem Herbots & Jonathan Michiels invited Ugo as a coach to work on physicality through dance and research on movement through robots. *

Nick is a nobody. But not for long. The debut novel that has to launch him can almost go to the printer. Only his characters still lack depth. So he orders a companion robot, a high-tech, artificial intelligence-drived 'being' that can no longer be distinguished from a human at first glance. Nick does not order him to dispel loneliness, but to re-enact his book together in the hope of bringing the characters to life.

That seems to work well at first. The robot turns out to be a natural talent: he virtuoso switches between the different personalities of Nick's characters. The novel is gaining more and more depth and the robot is completely immersed in the role play: over time he begins to dress up, adds props and drags life-size dolls into the writer's house.

But gradually Nick gets the feeling that something is wrong. Can the robot be trusted, if he can pretend so well? Because it can't be that robot, a computer that got out of hand, really experiences all those feelings and can really empathise with its characters? Isn't Nick being manipulated by the company behind this friendly face? Or is it his own distrust that stands in his way the most, as a writer and as a person?

In ROBODY, two players investigate what 'being human' and 'being real' mean in a time when technology seems to be overtaking us, also on fronts we always saw as typically human: creativity, empathy and connection. What is connection today, what forms can it take and can it only arise between people?

During the residency, Willem and Jonathan primarily want to do research on 'connection / connection', how it can arise and the forms it can take.
Between themselves
Between people
Between human and objects / human and non-human
Among other things from conversation
Among other things movement/physicality/sensory

Then they look for ways to generate new (text) material from that research.