Learning robot becomes an opera performer
Pygmalion is operatic material through and through. The Komische Oper Berlin takes the humanization of the puppet at its word: it makes the autonomous humanoid robot Myon the hero of an opera - with the meaningful title "My Square Lady".
What makes a person human? How can an object or a "simple living being" be shaped into one? With the piece My Square Lady after George Bernhard Shaw's play Pygmalion and Frederick Loewe's musical My Fair Lady the German-British performance collective Gob Squad, the Neurorobotics Research Lab at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin and the Komische Oper Berlin are looking for possible answers.
Gob Squad take Myon on a journey of discovery through the Komische Oper Berlin. Myon is to explore the "powerhouse of emotions" that is opera in all its facets and learn what it means to feel human emotions, express them and evoke them in others. At the end of the season, Myon will be able to prove on the big stage whether he is suitable to become a human being or even an opera star.
An interview with Myon: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWlWUrxLhrk
