*Human Study #4, La Classe*, is a performative installation that uses embodied computational agents as stylized actors. Set as a classroom, twenty-one robots of the RNP type act as pupils and teacher, the set also includes a large desk and a blackboard. A series of computational plotted drawings based on a math coursebook are hanging on the walls (1).

*La Classe* is a play that takes its inspiration from childhood memories, Jacques Tati, Theodor W. Adorno, and Michel Foucault. The actors express themselves in distorted Morse code (2), learn to pass and record time with tally marks in order to alleviate boredom. They are trained to conform and comply.

The fifteen-minute performance begins with the intense noise of the pupils chatting. They fall silent when the teacher says an unintelligible sentence. The registering process commences, he calls each pupil one by one, tracing a red line in his notebook, occasionally one needs to be recalled as if it was distracted. The lesson itself has three parts: practicing tracing vertical lines and diagonals, and the last part of the lesson is to draw tally marks. At some point, they revolt for a minute or two then get back in line by tracing tally marks. During the performance, the sounds of the motors, the friction of the pens on paper, and the robots’ voices produce a distinctive soundtrack.

*La Classe* is the fourth of the six instalments of Tresset’s *Human Study* series. As with the other installations, drawing is an essential component. Here mark-making is reduced to a minimal aesthetic playing with the strong symbolic and visual contrast between the tally mark and the gestural scribble.

The performance is not a direct commentary on technology, but it is an observation of society, human nature, and behavioral standardization.

(1) *Mathematique des petits*, H. and J. Denise and R. Polle, Pub. Delagrave, 1970
(2) Tresset was taught to sing Morse code as a child by his grandfather who was a radio operator during the Second World War.

Artist: Patrick Tresset, Ateliers Tresset SPRL-S
Assistants: Sabina Tupan, Sam Moon, Sandra Mondon, Steph Horak
Illuminate Productions: Caroline Jones, Angie Dixon

Video footage: Nassr Adris for BBC click, Tommo for Merge Festival.

Commissioned and co-produced by Illuminate Productions for Merge Festival in partnership with Better Bankside and Tate Modern.

Patrick Tresset (FR) is a Brussels based artist who develops installations with robotic agents as actors. These works are influenced by research into human behavior, how we make marks, perceive artworks, and relate to machines. Tresset also uses robots and autonomous computational systems to explore the drawing and painting practices. Tresset’s work has been exhibited in association with major museums such as The Grand Palais, The Pompidou Center, Prada Foundation, Tate Modern, Museum of Israel, Victoria & Albert Museum, Seoul’s MMCA, Brussels’ BOZAR, and at events such as Ars Electronica and Montreal’s BIAN.