The third ey

Mache dein Theater-Auge auf, das große dritte Auge, welches durch die zwei anderen in die Welt schaut
Friedrich Nietzsche, Morgenröte Buch 5, 509 -188

In the early years of last century a wide debate on the re-foundation of the theater begins in Europe.
Edward Gordon Craig, who lived in Florence since 1907, is one of the main protagonist.
To spread this thinking, he started in 1908
the publication of "The Mask", the ever rst
magazine entirely dedicated to studies on
contemporary theater.
The process of profound renovation of
Craig's theater begins by radically reconsi-
dering the role of the actor. In his essay
'The Actor and the Über-Marionette' (written
in 1907, but published in issue 2 of The
Mask in April 1908) he declares the need
to oust the actors from the theater, repla-
cing them with Supermarionette
His article begins very explicitly by quoting
Eleonora Duse: " to save the Theatre, the
Theatre must be destroyed, the actors and
actresses must all die of the plague.... They
make art Impossible.

The professional actors he trained in the

1. Edward Gordon Craig, 1 January 1903

19th century are totally inadequate for his projects, or

rather they are a real obstacle to achieving the artistic
potential he envisions. In his early London productions
he even preferred to work with extras, with amateurs
he trained himself. The text published in 1908 repre-
sents Craig's rst re ection on the ‘’the hypersubject of
nouveau théâtre‘’, to be followed in 1911 by "On the Art
of the Theater", and in 1913, "Towards a New Theater", in
which theorizes the "theater of the divine movement".
The concept of ‘Über-Marionette’ remains pervaded with
mystery. Apart from the title, in which a little-known
German word is emphasized by an English author, we do
not nd any de nition of the term. From von Kleist's
Marionettes to Nietzsche’s Übermensch, the German cul-
tural in uences are indisputable.
It should be remembered that in the years
1905-06, Craig was working in Dresden on a project for
the 'International Über-Marionette Theater'.
2. Edward Gordon Craig,The Mask,Volume one, number
one 1908
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 The project was not completed but Craig wrote his rst notes on the puppets in those years
in two of his notebooks: ‘‘Uber-Marions A and B’’
In addition to the lack of references to the origin of the term, Craig does not give a de nition
of what a Über-Marionette (UM) is, but we can assume it is basically a human being. Craig, in the sec-
ond Dresden notebook, notes, under the heading ‘Uber-Marions', that they need to be instructed at
least a couple of months before starting rehearsals and that he wants to be able to talk to his über-
puppets when they are not on stage. In addition, in the manuscript 'Dresden EGC 1905', there is a
detailed estimate expense about hiring 10 ‘Uber-Marions’
But what are the superior qualities of the UM
The UM is one of the main architects of the liberation of the Theater from its own ‘state of
imprisonment’, is the champion of the ‘ Theatre of the Future’. By placing a human being inside a gure,
he insuf ates a ‘soul’ into that gure, and acts thereby as a god. In 1912, Craig concluded his new article
'Gentlemen, the Marionette!’ by writing
What the wires of the Über-Marionette shall be, what shall guide him, who can say? I do not believe in
the mechanical, nor in the material. The wires which stretch from Divinity to the soul of the poet are wires
which might command him. It is therefore evident that the threads that move the UM are intangible,
they are a metaphor that Craig hopes will soon materialize: I hope that another ve years will be long
enough time for you to draw those tangible tangle-able wires out of your thoughts.

3. Edward Gordon Craig: Design Of A Stage Scene, 1907- 4. Edward Gordon Craig: Design Of A Stage Scene, 1907-
1910. 1910.Woodcut, later-published In ‘The Mask’.
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 Continuing with the theatrical research of the early decades of the twentieth century, we examine
another study in which human action in the theatrical scene is reconsidered: Triadisches Ballett,
ashow developed by Oskar Schlemmer while he was at the Bauhaus, from 1921 to 1929. It was
rst performed in Stuttgart on 30 September 1922, with music composed by Paul Hindemith.

5. Oskar Schlemmer - Self Portrait with mask 1924 6. Oskar Schlemmer: Das Triadische Ballett
Poster, Hanover 1924

In short, Schlemmer saw the modern world as being driven by two main forces, the mechanized
one(man as a machine and the body as a mechanism) and that of primal, primitive, ancestral impulses
Starting from the belief that the medium of all art is arti cial, he considers the movement of puppets
and marionettes as aesthetically superior to that of humans. But rather than staging a puppet show,
Schlemmer thinks of the human body as a new artistic medium. His synthesis of the human form is
accomplished with the design of radically original costumes through which he makes an abstraction
of the human body and transforms the action of the actor, of the dancer, which is expressed in the
artistic form of ballet and pantomime. through which he makes an abstraction of the human body
and transforms the action of the actor, of the dancer, which is expressed in the artistic form of ballet
and pantomime.

7. “Stilt Walkers,” (1927) By Oskar Schlemmer. Courtesy: Archive C. 8. Stick Dance, 1928, By Oskar Schlemmer.
Raman Schlemmer Courtesy: Oskar Schlemmer/Archive C Raman Schlemmer
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 The idea of the ballet was based on the principle of the trinity: 3 acts, 3 participants (2 males, 1 fe-
male), 12 dances and 18 costumes. Each act had a different color and mood, atmosphere
With a long tour, Ballet became the most widespread and well-known avant-garde artistic dance of
its time, helping to spread the Bauhaus ethos

A a year earlier, on January 25, 1921, the three-act drama by Karel Čapek, R.U.R. was staged at
the National Theater in Prague: Rossum's Universal Robots.

10. Karel Capek’s Play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), 1921

9. R. U. R. Rossum's Universal Robots: Kolektivni Drama; Book
Cover, Aventinum, First Edition, 1920. [Praha]

The work, which essentially represents a modern version of the legend of the Jewish Golem, belongs
to Čapek's series of "black utopias”; negative utopias or dystopias, conceived to show how scienti c
discoveries and technological progress can lead man to titanic rebellions
In R.U.R. the word "robot" appears for the rst time to describe an arti cial person. Capek invented
the term based on the Czech word "robota", which means "forced labor"
The robots in Capek's comedy are not mechanical men but they look exactly like humans and are
arti cially created in the factory founded by Dr. Rossum located on a remote island in the middle of
the ocean. They are actually "replicants", that is organic humanoids, much closer to the androids than the
metallic creations powered by electricity that we will encounter in the next science fiction culture. The
robots are in fact modeled entirely with organic matter, a sort of chemical protoplasm , which is kneaded
in huge vats
The factory was born from an idea of Old Rossum - a scientist obsessed with the idea of becoming a
god by creating life
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 With his formula, his nephew Young Rossum
create an entire army of low-cost labor, robots,
more precise and reliable beings than humans
Each robot "can do the work of two and a half
human workers", so that humans can be free to
have "no other tasks, no other jobs, no other prob-
lems" than perfecting oneself.
It is the utopia of Domin, the reckless demiurge
of Rossum, who would like to free humanity
from the slavery of physical fatigue.
The effects are catastrophic, humanity sinks
into vice and indolence, births drop and robots
now widespread all over the world realize they
are stronger and more intelligent of humans,
they begin to rebel against their creators and
exterminate them
‘’Helena: And so I thought ... if they were like us, if
they could understand us, then they could never
hate us so much ... if only they were like people ...
just a little ..
Domin: Oh Helena! No one can hate man as much 11. Karel Capek’s Play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), 1928-
as man!’ 29 Sylvia Field (Helena) And Albert Van Dekker (Radius, A Robot).
CoURtesy:The New York Public Librar
Years later the machines dominate the human Digital Collections
race and threaten it with extinction, even if it is
saved at the last moment. The show was a great
success and is still represented all over the world.

12. R.U.R. By Karel Čapek, End Of Third Act; Production Theatre Guild Touring Company’s 1928–1929
’

We have so far retraced three important episodes - not necessarily connected to each other - of the
theatrical representation of the early decades of the twentieth century

13. Fortunato Depero, 1915, "Riso Cinico", Della Serie "Stati D'animo" - Roma

We
then come to the theatrical experiences of Fortunato Depero, who in his work has strong af ni-
ties with the recently exposed themes

14. Balla-Depero: Ricostruzione Futurista Dell’Universo, Milano, 11 Marzo 1915

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 Let's go back a few years, on 11 March 1915 the very young Depero at the age of 23 publishes, to-
gether with Balla in Milan, the manifesto of the Futurist theater entitled FUTURIST RECONSTRUC-
TION OF THE UNIVERSE

For the two futurists, the theater is the privileged place where to express the universal vibration
through "dynamic plastic complexes" ("living sculptures", synthesis of painting, music, sculpture, archi-
tecture), a total fusion of abstract equivalents of all forms and of all the elements of the universe

‘’We futurists, Balla and Depero, want to achieve this total fusion .... We will give skeleton and flesh to
the invisible, the impalpable, the imponderable, the imperceptible. Every action that develops in space,
every emotion experienced, will be for us the intuition of a discovery ... the infinite systematic discovery-
invention through the complex constructive abstract art of noise, that is, the futurist style’’
Unlike Craig's suggestive and mysterious, sometimes hermetic notes, the Futurist manifesto explicitly
expresses a series of elements and characteristics that form the basis of Futurist theatrical aesthetics:
the fusion of art and science to originate a sudden, continuous, pyrotechnic, physical, chemistry of the
new being automatically speaking, shouting, dancing ... the metallic animal ..
On April 14, 1918 when Depero nally managed to create his rst theatrical creation, Balli Plastici at
the Teatro dei Piccoli in Rome. It is a highly experimental work in which the actors are wooden pup-
pets and the words were replaced by pure mimic action. Having previously stayed in Florence too, it
is unthinkable that Depero was not aware of the writings of Edward Gordon Craig who had lived in
Florence since 1907 and published "The Mask”. Undoubtedly, Depero has his own originality in ad-
dressing the problem of the actor highlighted by Craig, that is the theme of the puppet, which for him
has no metaphysical connotation, is an actor-machine that interprets dimensions of Game, Fantasy
and the Absurd: “ The actors are puppets with mechanical and rigid movements: characters that recall the
values of childhood, dreams, magic ... By freeing myself from the human element, I achieved maximum auto-
nomy and maximum freedom in my beloved living constructions, and thus were born my Balli Plastici, the rst
organic attempt at the revolution and theatrical plastic reconstruction of the world “. (cit. Depero, Teatro Plastico.
Principles and applications, in" Il Mondo ", Milan 12 April 1919)

One hundred years later, in 2018 Balli Plastici Remix resumes Depero's work, with the deliberate
choice not to pursue unlikely philologies, but to reconsider the on stage dialectic between human
and non-human in different terms. Following the original musical scores, the format of "Gran Varietà
Futurista" is adopted; 14 scenes with a prologue and an epilogue, performed by 30 musicians, 13 per-
formers, a robot, and the Bot Nato Depero's spirit-machine.

Compared to the original, therefore, the "mechanical" moves in the direction of digital technology,
the network, the arti cial intelligence, representing aesthetic instances of the fourth industrial revolu-
tion, but keeping, through the creations of Abbondanza / Bertoni Company, its 'expressionist' energy:
simultaneously emotional and expressive. The performers are professional dancers, but also
teenagers, small children, Japanese and African dancers

The space is modeled in a double set: initially the stage of the Auditorio Melotti in Rovereto is redu-
ced to about one third of the surface, becoming a "black box". In this space there is a large black
cube of approx. 2x2x2 meters, a Memory box on which images with video mapping techniques ap-
pears

This space will be “discovered" by the performers, nally the whole stage will appear, shining and
completely white; at the same time the cube will be deconstructed and its contents will appear: it is a
3D printed replica of the Martellatori sculpture by Fortunato Depero and contains all the invisible
technologies of the Bot, called Nato. (Diminutive used by Fortunato Depero's family and close friends
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 Nato is a sort of custom voice assistant who, with Arti cial Intelligence techniques, answers the
questions asked during the show. His memory is made up of a very large selection of Depero's wri-
tings provided by the MART Archive, and reworked with a Machine Learning process. Technically, the
Bot is made up of simple technological components controlled by a Raspberry board, and by a small
system of LED-RGB lights that will change color and intensity in sync with the voice. An internal mi-
crophone receives the "commands", the questions from Michele Abbondanza and the audience. As
for the images of the show, two adjacent vertical and horizontal video projection planes are used to
obtain a spatial continuum together with a computer vision system to perform the Video Mapping
techniques. A nal element of the scenography will consist of a transparent container of about 5 kg of
phosphorescent green gelatinous blob, the slime, which will be manipulated by two children and on
which animated pictures will appear.

In Balli Plastici Remix the human-machine argument was declined by digital sets In ve types:

1. Body-mapping interface: a speci c interface, based on the combination of Computer Vision and
Depth Sensing techniques and the integration of dynamic body-mapping technologies in the scene,
allows the real-time transformation of the performer into a puppet or its transposition into the
virtual dimensions of data and networks.

15. Bertoni-Abbondanza & Atzori: Balli Plastici Remix: Prologo; Auditorium Mart, Rovereto, 11 Maggio 2018.
Courtesy Of Monica Condini
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2. Bot Nato: the intent is to highlight the ability of the 'machine' to reproduce not only the appea-
rance of man but his thought; in this case that of Depero, who with futurist irony we can de ne a
representation of his ‘spirit’, embodied into a 3D print that lights up, listens and speaks

16. Bertoni-Abbondanza & Atzori, Balli Plastici Remix, Scena 5 Nato e l’Umanoide; Auditorium Mart, Rovereto, Maggio 2018.
Courtesy Of Monica Condini

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3. A real Robot, the Italian NAO who in the last scene becomes the dance teacher for the thirteen
human performers.

18. Bertoni-Abbondanza & Atzori: Balli Plastici Remix, Scena 3: Il Popolo; Auditorium Mart, Rovereto, 11 Maggio 2018
Courtesy Of Monica Condini
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4. A female-like humanoid arrives on stage from space, oats on the screen from which, once lan-
ded, she detaches, investing the whole scene with a strong white-blue light. She is a sort of prie-
stess of the Deperian 'spirit' that she follows with oriental devotion.

19. Bertoni-Abbondanza & Atzori: Balli Plastici Remix, Scena Scena 4: L’umanoide; Auditorium Mart, Rovereto, 11 Maggio 2018.
Courtesy Of Monica Condini
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5. Finally, a real super marionette hovers suspended on stage; she is 'augmented' by enormous
prostheses and temporarily overcomes the force of gravity by performing daring stunts..

20. Bertoni-Abbondanza & Atzori: Balli Plastici Remix, Auditorium Mart, Rovereto, 11 Maggio 2018.
Courtesy Of Monica Condini

At the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Balli Plastici Remix is a fervent homage to For-
tunato Depero; thanks to the Masters of Action directed by Abbondanza & Bertoni, is our little
meditation on the unsurpassed wonder of the human, on the technical unreproducibility of his
Aura, that technology only ampli es in the surprising alchemy of theater

In real life we see streets, squares, arcades, taverns, houses, factories, workshops, woods, rocks, tramways,
trains, etc .... with daring, improbable scenographic riches; a very agitated world of lights, winds, re ections;
overturned, multiplied and absurd realities in mirrors and shop windows; spiral scenes from the stairways,
spectacles in turmoil of thunderstorms, or dancing and dizzying if perceived in speed.The theater has not yet
realized this varied and surprising world which also belongs to lived reality.The most complete artistic expres-
sion is the theater, the greatest lyrical, plastic and musical interpretation of life. (cit. Depero Futurista -known
as the Bolted Book-, 1927

The photos of Balli Plastici Remix are by Monica Condini

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