Even if Blade Runner’s 2019 and of all the cyberpunk cinematographic imaginary, doesn’t seem so close, the revolution of the new millennium is however represented by the artificial intelligence. We still don’t have flying cars and skateboards in the streets, motorcycles racing, but the most important entrepreneurial realities on the planet have been engaged in the development of the sector for some time now. From the mechanisms’ studies and techniques of voice recognition to algorithms for image recognition.

Machines can learn, like the Netflix interface you use every day, like Facebook. Machine learning is the category of computer science that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. “Patterns” are extracted and used to make predictions.

And Machine Learning is also the name of the second part of Hype Cycle, a series of short films that explore the interaction between man and machine from new technologies.

Set in a dance studio, the three shorts show a dancer who teaches robots Hizzy, Polly and Harmony how to move. As the skills of robots develop from shaky to composed mimicry, a physical dialogue emerges between man and machine: mimicking, balancing, challenging, competing, overtaking.

A series of questions immediately arise from this: can robots keep up with the dancer? Could a robot ever perform just for pleasure? Giving a machine a name and a capacity, does it correspond to giving it a soul? Androids dream electric sheep?

Have fun.