In Simple Machines, Ugo Dehaes shows how he grows organic-looking robots in his basement, raises them and trains them to be dancers.
We live in a world dominated by economic principles that push us to make everything as efficient and cheap as possible.
In response, Ugo fired all his dancers and researched how to breed and train his own robots. They are born from crazy cocoons and then crawl across the table like strange caterpillars. Some get hair, others are tripping around like little dogs. Through artificial intelligence, he lets them come up with their own dance performance.
Then Ugo's job as choreographer also disappears...
Simple Machines is an attempt to make humans completely superfluous in the creation process. Welcome to the future.
After the performance, the audience is invited to teach the robots new movements themselves in the installation Arena, the first part of the Forced Labor cycle, which travels along as the backdrop of Simple Machines.
