My collaborator is a machine

that doesn't really know what a dancing human is.

Mutaurwa: So, this project came about,

and I guess it's so much more of an experiment than a project

because we don't know what is about to happen here

or what we're going to get out of this.

But, you know, we wanted to see what would happen

when you put someone like Bill,

a National Medal of the Arts honoree,

a MacArthur fellow, a two-time Tony winner --

What happens when you put a technology like PoseNet

in the hands of an artist of that caliber.

Malika: When I think about Bill, he is a giant among us.

He changed everything that we know around modern dance,

around the braiding together of dance and political speech --

and not in a traditional way,

but in a way that turned everything upside-down.

Maya: PoseNet is a machine- learning model that estimates

where key points are on your body,

like where your elbow is, for example.

What's exciting is we took this huge machine-learning model

and made it lightweight enough to run in your browser,

which means that no images ever leave your machine.

You can use it anywhere you want --

in a dance studio, in your living room.

And also, you don't need to wear any special sensors

or use any special hardware.

It's all totally on your computer.

-With these workshops, we just want to explore

if there is a way that you feel like your movement

could plug in.

Bill: And we're with you.

My whole life has been about

trying to treat the body like a photographic image.

That's something I borrowed from Arnie Zane,

and something we borrowed from independent cinema

in the late '60s and '70s.

It's even in the name of the thing -- "PoseNet," right?

-Yeah. Bill: It's about poses,

you know, as opposed to...

Bill: Good morning.

The test was as I expected.

We're now just doing rhythm.

[ Rhythmic clapping ]

I don't know why they're --

to my mind, they're very different movers.

But they all look the same.

-Right.

Bill: Okay.

Huh. [ Chuckles ]

Bill: Is there a way to tell the dots

that each one has to have another word?

-We could have it go word, word, word, word, word, word, word

as this whole sentence. -Yes.

-Yeah. Bill: And then it would have

that movement that we were talking about.

-Yeah. Bill: I like this.

Maya: The tools you were using were so simple and basic,

but it was her embodiment of them.

Bill: Well, that's what I was trying to get at

with the dot on Christina's nose.

-Yeah. -How do you get that to be

weighted with meaning and import.

-Right. Janet: Let the tools teach us

and open our minds, and have a dialogue that way.

I think that's an important thing, too.

-Maybe it's ego that I want to be the one

to know how they make those dots make somebody cry.

Maya: During the workshops, we came with these pre-made prototypes.

But Bill often wanted to try something new

or something totally different, so we ended up live-changing

a lot of different pieces of the prototypes in the workshops.

Coding in the moment was... scary but exciting.

♪♪

♪♪

Malika: How do we take A.I. as an opportunity

of recreating relationships of power?

I think we're in a place where we are at a crossroads

to see how, in fact, will A.I. be used.

Bill: So, Maya. -Yeah.

Bill: I think for me right now, I'm still trying to see

that simple point of contact

between a real body and the prototype.

And that's what I'm trying to figure out.

What is there that I brought three dancers --

a woman, two men, one black man who might feel close to my body.

And they are all articulate,

and they can also make relationships in space.

Just keep your arm behind you -- behind you, please.

Arm behind you.

But now what we just learned here is that

if we want to have articulate sentences,

they have to be quite far away from the camera.

Can I have you guys' attention, please?

The first one is all about hands up here.

The next one, maybe, it is the -- it's here.

It's in the middle of the body.

The third one, it's only people moving across low.

And we have boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

End of the first idea.

I truly would like to see them actually working like dancers --

working like thinking people with their bodies.

-Yes.

-Therefore, I'm giving them problems.

Vinson: I am trying to fit into his history,

even though I haven't experienced,

like, a fraction of the things that he has, you know?

Huiwang: The work he chooses to do has his uniqueness

but also has something shared and around with his interests

in gender-role, identity.

-He draws content from his history and from his background.

There's space in his process for every kind of person.

-Cut. Bill: You know enough

about my work, that I'm a famous improvisor with speaking.

-Yes. -So, can that --

could it ever work with me improvising freely?

Maya: As...I'm...talking...

the words...that...I say...

appear...above me, or...not me, the dancer.

-William Burroughs said, "Language is a virus."

[ Laughter ]

[ Laughter ]

-What's that, Christina?

To steal it from people.

Bill: Yeah, I understand.

[ Laughter ]

[ Music playing ]

-So, if she turns away, the sound will go out.

[ Music cuts out ]

Janet: If we're imposing those two ideas together,

then we want to be more intentional

about where we are -- where to hold and pause

so we can control the switches more.

Bill: We have ended up, at the end of the day,

using this as the canvas. -Right. Yeah.

-Yep. Bill: But it took us a while

to really understand that's what we're doing.

This is going to be taking us

to the end of this century, and important...

is supposed to be happening with this

when you put it in the hands of people.

Maya: This project stands out to me because it demonstrates

how PoseNet can be used

in a way that feels very meaningful and very conceptual,

and I haven't seen that with a lot of other projects

that involve machine learning, or PoseNet specifically.

♪♪

♪♪

Malika: I think it's also important

that we be able to center our artists, right?

And especially as a tech company,

the importance of understanding

that our artists are our place of humanity.

Bill: I'm known for talking solos.

This is what I do, and I've been doing it for 30 years.

Do you want to have Bill T. Jones doing it?

And hear the way Bill T. Jones says the words?

-Yes. Bill: Well, then we should have

the microphone on, then.

"21" was a solo that I made when I was an artist

in residence at Kent School for Boys in 1983.

It came out of a class that I sat in on.

Someone said offhandedly, "Oh, when you're dancing,

you're not thinking. Of course."

And I was a bit incensed by that.

♪♪

The Italian Renaissance.

Contrapposto.

David. Muhammad Ali.

I am the greatest. To the groin.

Eek! A mouse!

You're so vulnerable. You pretend you're tough.

You're so vulnerable.

Nude.

I feel naked here in this room.

All these eyes looking.

And art-deco. Mouth hidden.

Mouth is always running.

Eyes are looking.

New York Yankees. Wind up.

Apollo. Apollo Belvedere.

Adam.

The first man.

Adam.

The first woman.

You go to Hell.

Always personal.

The black body is what I wear.

So we don't even have to say it, right?

This is a black thinking body, right?

That's trying to get these bodies

to be an extension of my body,

and it's frustrating as hell because I have a huge ego,

and time is taking its toll.

But that's why we're here together, right?

Alright, so, what do you want to do?

-Every day, I play the game and cheat the system.

Every now and then, I...up and get caught.

And still, I'll try it again.

-Hey!

[ Rhythmic clapping ]

Huiwang: Do you hear me?

Bill: You pay us great compliment

by speaking the language we speak.

And you have a very strong Chinese identity.

And I would like to be able to actually know

the other man, as well.

[ Speaking in Mandarin ]

Janet: "Why are you asking if I'm afraid of blood?"

[ Speaking in Mandarin ]

Janet: And they told me, "It's a girl."

-Whoo!

[ Applause ]

Bill: Okay, thank you. Why are you applauding?

-That was awesome.

Bill: You felt emotion. You're emotionally engaged.

-Yep. Bill: Okay.

That's what we're going for, right?

Maya: As a dancer and a technologist,

there wasn't a lot of overlap

between me dancing or, you know, me coding,

and with this project, one of the most exciting things

is that it's this example

of how you can use new technologies in combination

with other art forms or other mediums of expression.

♪♪

♪♪

Bill: How much should one give to the Internet?

How how can you dare give of yourself?

As I change and get older,

maybe I'm not as brazen as I used to be. Maybe I'm more.

Malika: Remembering what he looked like on that stage

almost 20 years ago, and then watching him now

trying to interact with this new technology,

I think the ambivalence that he gives voice to

is the ambivalence that so many of us feel.

Bill: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Austrian Oak.

The first bodybuilder that many gay men were allowed

to look at without guilt, because he was without guilt.

Janet: I feel like we're just beginning to know

what these tools that we were playing with can do,

and I think of them as maybe more than tools.

They are more like, hm, collaborators.

Vinson: I dance because other black boys aren't allowed to dance.

Bill: I've never really collaborated with a machine before.

Where is the truth of gravity?

Time? Space?

Sweat? Effort?

It's a whole other learning curve.

It's hard on the ego,

but good on one's sense of love for humanity.

Janet: I trust there are these artists/technologists out there

that will continue developing it.

And I think that everyone can play with something

that's readily available in their homes,

and then maybe use it in a performance,