Earlier this year, multi-disciplinary recording artist KROY teamed up with The PHI Centre in Montreal to turn her music into a live performance art piece entitled ANIMACHINA. During this residency, Jonathon Anderson at the Creative School of Ryerson University programmed three robot arms to play music and mirror KROY‘s movements, to tell a communal story that blurs the line between man and machine and what interpersonal connection looks like in the modern world. Today, KROY releases a seven-part video series for ANIMACHINA. Watch HERE.
In these videos, KROY strips down her hyper-pop and hyper-sensitive sound, to showcase her vocals in a truly haunting way. Performing alongside a robot, she leaves viewers feeling entranced and unsettled as she tackles topics like love and violence. Working through the seven videos, KROY performs recent songs like “Ryan Atwood,” teases upcoming releases, and interweaves a storyline that tethers the series together.
On ANIMACHINA, the PHI Centre said, “These monster-machines, with unforgivable tentacles, perform choreographic movements with surgical precision. In unison, they strum, modulate the artist’s voice on pedals and document the scene themselves. The danger, inherent in this dance of death where a single coordination error can lead to a fatal accident, allows KROY and his team to touch the sublime. Because it is with the machines that she finds comfort and that she fully vibrates.”
These videos are a hint at what is to come from the avantgarde artist later this year as she closes one chapter of her artistry, and fiercely blows open the next.
performance ONE . approaching and becoming
performance TWO . trust and alter
performance THREE . gate and infiltrate
performance FOUR . translation and connection
performance FIVE . strong and tame
performance SIX . cycle and breath
performance SEVEN . love and violence
ABOUT KROY
Introspection. Lust for connection. Loneliness can transform you in many ways. Isolation will move you to places you never thought you could find yourself. Some would choose to wait for a human connection. Others would wish for rooms full of strangers. Social anxiety has pushed KROY in the direction of finding intimacy elsewhere. Finding comfort in the digital world, having rooted most of her personality in Myspace and Tumblr, KROY finds freedom online. Connecting with people she’ll never meet. Confessing secrets she’d never tell any physical being. Merging her obsession with robots with her musical abilities, a pandemic became a playground. Getting in contact with other creatives also in a state of emergency, a team was quickly formed. With consultants in AI, digital arts, physics and computer sciences. With Ryerson University’s Creative Lab supporting and hosting the project. With three KUKA arms ready to learn how to play live instruments. Ready to learn choreography and movements that match KROY’s.
