AI, orchestra and dance combine to retell Polish folklore tale

A Body for Harnasie is a new production by choreographer Wayne McGregor and visual artist Ben Cullen Williams, reimagining the ballet score Harnasie by Karol Szymanowski, which is based on a Polish folk story. Incorporating AI, dance, sculpture and orchestral music, ⁠the show projects footage onto a kinetic sculpture that sits above the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), at the NOSPR Concert Hall in Katowice, Poland. To create the visuals, Cullen Williams filmed Company Wayne McGregor dancers, and then applied AI to blend the live-action footage with algorithmic manipulation to “bring an abstract nuance” to the film, says Cullen Williams, and “tease out qualities that we understand as humans, but we might not actually be there within the recorded footage”. The footage is then projected onto the sculpture, which rotates and changes shape amidst the orchestra performing Szymanowski’s ballet score, under conductor Edward Gardner. Director and choreographer: Wayne McGregor Sculpture design, film creation and AI development: Ben Cullen Williams Principal Conductor: Edward Gardner Music Karol: Szymanowski Original Dance: Company Wayne McGregor – Learn more ➤ [Delete if there’s no relevant article] Subscribe ➤ Get more from New Scientist: Official website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: LinkedIn: About New Scientist: New Scientist was founded in 1956 for “all those interested in scientific discovery and its social consequences”. Today our website, videos, newsletters, app, podcast and print magazine cover the world’s most important, exciting and entertaining science news as well as asking the big-picture questions about life, the universe, and what it means to be human. New Scientist