Amit Drori teaches puppetry at the School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem. He has become renowned worldwide for practising what he calls "robotic poetry", blending traditional hand-operated puppets, with self-made robots, made with designer Noam Dover.

With his dedicated troupe - all puppeteers who have become amateur engineers, learning their robotic arts through open source technology online - he has travelled the world with his electronic stage shows.

BBC News caught up with him at the Barbican in London as he rehearsed his touring show Savanna, which ran as part of the city's recent International Mime Festival, to find out the secrets of his hybrid art form.

Video Journalist: Dougal Shaw