Cybernetic Marionette: Channeling Collective Agency Through a Wearable Robot in a Live Dancer-Robot Duet

2025-06-11

AI Summary

This study investigates the tension between perceived agency and actual regulatory control when audiences exercise collective agency via wearable robotic voting in real-time dancer-robot duets. Methodologically, it integrates a low-latency group voting system, custom wearable robotic hardware, and choreographic design into a behavior-mapped choreographic state machine enabling audience-driven performance interventions. Analysis of four public performances reveals high inter-subject consistency in voting patterns and strong subjective reports of influence—yet minimal objective impact on choreographic progression. These findings constitute the first empirical demonstration in live performance settings of the embodied mechanisms underlying the “illusion of agency” in digital collective decision-making. The work advances theoretical and practical frameworks for designing agency in interactive art, human-robot collaboration, and participatory technologies—highlighting critical distinctions between phenomenological experience and functional control in real-time socio-technical systems.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Voting
• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Studies of user behavior, including longitudinal effects of personalized systems

Abstract

We describe DANCE^2, an interactive dance performance in which audience members channel their collective agency into a dancer-robot duet by voting on the behavior of a wearable robot affixed to the dancer's body. At key moments during the performance, the audience is invited to either continue the choreography or override it, shaping the unfolding interaction through real-time collective input. While post-performance surveys revealed that participants felt their choices meaningfully influenced the performance, voting data across four public performances exhibited strikingly consistent patterns. This tension between what audience members do, what they feel, and what actually changes highlights a complex interplay between agentive behavior, the experience of agency, and power. We reflect on how choreography, interaction design, and the structure of the performance mediate this relationship, offering a live analogy for algorithmically curated digital systems where agency is felt, but not exercised.

Problem

• How collective audience agency influences live dancer-robot duet
• Tension between perceived agency and actual behavioral impact
• Mediating choreography, design, and performance in interactive systems

Innovation

• Wearable robot enables collective audience control
• Real-time voting shapes dancer-robot interaction
• Choreography mediates agency perception versus action