A singing marionette made of junk and a dancing robotic swan in the reactor hall
Follow us on a rare journey under the earth to see some remarkable creatures, such as the electro-mechanical marionette Olimpia made from junk and the dancing robot swan Robocygne in Åsa and Carl Unander-Scharin’s Opera Mecatronica – an exhibition in the abandoned Reactor hall (R1) at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), November 18th-21st.


Åsa and Carl Unander-Scharin present eight mecatronical opera and dance works. The exhibition room is a unique 13000 m3 space, 35 meters below earth which was Sweden’s first nuclear reactor, designed for scientific research, built in 1954 and phased out in 1970s.

In the exhibition Opera Mecatronica, the computer directed marionette Olimpia made from junk, will perform for the first time. Olimpia is a three-meter tall three-dimensional creation built from rusty and patinated machine parts that dance in a curiously human like manner whilst singing an aria from The Tales of Hoffmann.

It is also the Stockholm debut for the dancing robot swan Robocygne, who will be dancing to Carl Unander-Scharin’s electroacoustic version of Tchaikovsky’s majestic music from Swan Lake. The impression created when Robocygne, which was developed at Mälardalen University, was shown to an audience for the first time at the Swedish Book Fair in Gothenburg in September 2010, was enormous. That a robot could bring tears to the eye with its captivating dance created a newsworthy item that reached as far as the USA, India, Canada and Singapore.

In this exhibition there are other curious items such as an interactive copper tree singing Handel’s Ombra mai fù, accompanied by vibrating brass loudspeaker leaves, a tub with dark water where a dancer interactively dances to the Pearl Fisher duet by Georges Bizet, and an electro mechanical miniature version of the ballet Petrushka…

To be sure of a place make a reservation at www.operamecatronica.com

To find your way to R1: R1 is situated at Drottning Kristinas väg 51 at KTH Campus

Further information and photos can be found at www.operamecatronica.com

Press contact:
Titti Grahl, int+46 (0)73-610 23 93, titti.grahl@bredband.net
Lena Uhlander, int+ 46 (0) 70-572 86 65, lena.uhlander@telia.com