Heddatron
University of Texas at Austin 2020-2021 Season
Directed by Khristián Méndez
Role: Integrated System Designer
Collaborators: Chris Conard, Lindsey Thurston, Bill Rios, Zoey Crow, Pollyanna O'Hair
Tools: Blender (Modeling), Unity (Pre-Vis), Touchdesigner (Robot Control)
A pregnant housewife is abducted by robots and taken to the rainforest and forced to perform Hedda Gabler by her robot captors. Meanwhile, her family is back home in Michigan trying to find her, and Henrik Ibsen is in Norway attempting to write Hedda Gabler, as Strindberg taunts him. A hilarious and savage journey to freedom.
My role in this ongoing process is focused on designing the systems inside and outside of the robots so that they can perform live on stage for an audience. A big focus is ensuring smooth Human-robot interaction both for operators and for the audience. Making sure that the robots can express themselves and create empathetic connections with the audience. In conjunction with this, ensuring reliability and consistency of the robot functioning throughout the rehearsal and performance process is of upmost importance.
