IDEA – Dialogue on Love, Death, and Existence by Two Androids, Keiichiro Shibuya + Takashi Ikegami at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, as a special event of the exhibition “DXP (Digital Transformation Planet) – Towards the Next Interface,” we premiere the joint performance of the androids Alter3, which also participates in the DXP exhibition, and Alter4, who was introduced last April. This performance is a collaboration between composer Keiichiro Shibuya and Professor Takashi Ikegami of the University of Tokyo.

The performing humanoid robot “Alter” is well-known for Shibuya’s “Android Opera.” For the first time, two Alters will share the stage.

Throughout the performance, Shibuya plays both the piano and electronics. The script, consisting of conversations between the two androids, is generated by GPT and, with the assistance of young-talented artist Yuma Kishi, who also participates in the exhibition, the dialogue and discussions are based on GPT’s learning from Plato’s writings and Karl Popper’s critiques of Plato. Essentially, this work is a theatrical piece that minimizes human intent, performed by two androids. Drawing inspiration from Plato’s dialogues, it is named “IDEA,” and also resonates with the intense alienation found in the film “Antigone,”
which is based on the Greek myth by Straub-Huillet.

Furthermore, Alter3 is motion-controlled by a program developed by the Ikegami Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, which translates spoken text into movement using GPT. Alter4, on the other hand, moves in response to music’s volume, pitch, and density, modulating its entire body like a synthesizer, based on a program by electronic musician Shintaro Imai. The two androids, representing Plato’s world of Ideas and the world of Phenomena respectively, will engage in intense debate.

After the performance, a post-talk session is scheduled with Takashi Ikegami, and Keiichiro Shibuya, and Yuko Hasegawa, director of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa will join the session as a moderator.