Relationship between humans and technology put under the spotlight at 2022 New Vision Arts Festival
- Playwright Yan Pat-to brings his futuristic work, Posthuman Condition, from Germany to Hong Kong’s annual performing arts showcase
- Director Ata Wong and composer GayBird Leung combine their opposing views on technology to create Hack, a performance piece
Our fascination with human-like robots and cyborgs is nothing new. Back in the 1970s, the American TV series The Bionic Woman was a global hit watched by millions of people.
In 2000, carmaker Honda revealed its humanoid robot Asimo, which regularly captivated the public with demonstrations of its abilities before its last show at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Japan earlier this year.
Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics brought Sophia, a lifelike robot, into the world in 2016. She became so well received as a public speaker on TV and at global events that she was named the United Nations Development Programme’s first non-human Innovation Champion, and was even granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia.
Despite all these advances, it still remains unclear how the relationship between humans and robots will continue to develop. Will we someday become equals, or will machines eventually become so powerful that they subjugate their organic counterparts?
During the upcoming New Vision Arts Festival – an annual performing arts showcase in Hong Kong organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and known for pushing boundaries with innovative performances – two shows will attempt to tackle the big question on the minds of technophiles and technophobes alike: will technology bring humanity to ruin?
“It’s in human nature to be curious about the future and the unknown. With new technology comes two main emotions: excitement and fear,” says Hong Kong-born Yan Pat-to, resident playwright at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in Germany. He will return home to bring his futuristic work Posthuman Condition to the festival in late October.
Yan got his inspiration for the play from a visit to a 2014 exhibition at the Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin, where he was stunned by its display of military drones. Posthuman Condition is a dark comedy about Frank, an ordinary man who becomes a remote drone pilot, using his gaming skills to launch air strikes.
