Celebrating World Puppetry Day with Our Friends at UNIMA Russia
The Art of Puppetry and Artificial Intelligence
World Puppetry Day is a time to reflect on our craft, celebrate its evolution, and look toward its future. Our friends at UNIMA Russia have shared an insightful message exploring the intersection of puppetry and artificial intelligence—a theme that resonates deeply in today’s world.
UNIMA Russia congratulates on the World Puppetry Day!
The nature of Theater is festive in its essence, so on this day puppeteers have started a tradition - to think seriously about the profession. The theme is chosen in advance, and essays are published on March 21. This year's theme is the art of playing puppets and artificial intelligence.
The prefixes "chat-", "bot-", "neuro-" are everywhere today. At the user's request, a machine can capsulize the history of the civilization very quickly. Years of labor and thousands of the destinies, scientists, industrialists, workers, other people and everything around us can be turned into a "single code" in a snap. Because there are three industrial revolutions in the past, and the fourth is in full swing. We're drifting in the ocean of information without noticing how our dreams of the future have become the present but the present....
The truth is that artificial intelligence is not intelligence after all. It is a powerful tool that can be used to solve many complex problems, but these problems must be set by someone. Without humans, AI will not come to life, but with our help it can give life to the wildest dream. Does that ring any bells?
Pinocchio and Copellia, Chapek's play and Asimov's stories, Leonardo's knights and the promobots created in Skolkovo - aren't they all variations on the same theme?
Progress for the puppeteer is a well rehearsed dream. At the dawn of the civilization, we had no processors, no electricity, not even a wheel, but we could already give life to the wildest dream. We could give life and body.
Pygmalion, however, needed Aphrodite's help, and for the Russian puppeteer, Vladimir Zakharov, it was enough to use the laws of cybernetics, fantasy and soul for "full revitalization" in the twentieth century. The master is no longer with us, but his puppets continue to live, but robots....
In Russia, robots serve in manufacturing, go on stage and work as the ushers in the theaters from time to time. Because the times are like this: unmanned vehicles, the Internet of Things, 3D printing are no longer surprising. Only androids still haven't left the lab to come to us as an audience member, and it's hard to say whether that makes a common person happy or upset. Few people think about the future as long as they live in the present, but the future is...
A quarter of the twenty-first century has passed, and it's easier for us to find a topic of conversation that touches everyone than an image of the future that inspires. Have you noticed how cozy the science fiction has become? Total retrofuturism.
Friends, it's time to dream again. Don't be afraid! Who, if not the puppeteers? The future is still ours. At the theater!
With respect,
UNIMA Russia