NOVABOT actor and drone. A dialectic between an actor’s body and its fragmented portrayal

The University of Aix-Marseille's Novabot project, 2021 -25, explores how poetic language transforms an actor's body as they utter it. This interdisciplinary research project is a collaboration between theatre and robotics, with an actor's movements being captured by physiological sensors and three cameras, one mounted on a four-motor DJI TM Mavic drone, a second on a two-metre prototype airship and the third focusing only on parts of the actor's body. It involves an almost 'spectrographic' analysis of the actor including their physiological data, based on their breathing in real-time, via a chest belt, and their eye movements, via eyetracking goggles. This creates two projections, a curve showing their breathing and a second displaying the actor's field of vision, revealing the mechanisms involved in enunciating a poetic text. Moreover, this renders visible the physical reactions of the actor to their performance, which the spectator is not normally equipped to perceive. Valère Novarina's poetic language has been chosen for its ability to dynamize and perturb the language while challenging the actor with its utterance. Fragmenting, focusing on, and increasing the audience's perception of the actor's performance is also likely to immerse each of them into the actor's production process.