With: Lena Biresch & Nico Parisius, Constanza Carvajal, dgtl fmnsm, doublelucky productions, Choy Ka Fai, Sarah Fartuun Heinze, Interrobang, Johannes J. Jakuraak alias “Hungry”, Janne Kummer & collaborators, Rik Lander & Phil D Hall, NewfrontEars, Agnieszka Polska, Theresa Reiwer, Thomas Ryckewaert, Agrupación Señor Serrano, Claudix Vanesix, Nora Wölfing
The fifth edition of the “Spy on Me” festival provides a stage for various connections between artificial intelligence (AI) and humans. Despite or perhaps because of the apocalyptic discourse on AI, it's worth taking a moment to reflect and figure out what we (still) have control over, in order to actively shape our relationship with technology.
Participating artists from around the world are exploring physical and verbal ways of expressing the mathematical processes that form the basis of AI systems. AI enters the stage both visibly and invisibly. It forms a relationship with the audience, creating shared languages and spaces. In the process, the artists present performative translations for communicating with technology, always aware of the gaps and risks involved. The result is an exchange between human and machine that makes the technology accessible to the audience – a strategy that we experience in our AI-enhanced everyday lives as well.
The major tech companies are currently investing massive resources in developing emotional AI, a technology tailored to users' needs. This includes looking for machine imitations of human emotions, affects, and physical expressions. They are aiming to make machines not only “intelligent” but also “empathetic”. For example, chatbots thank you for using them, and interpersonal interaction that previously seemed impossible to generate with computers, such as emotional intimacy, is now feasible through technology.
What does this development do to our relationship with technology? What does this mean in regards to the way we interact in theatre? And why do we believe the machine's “feelings”, even if we know they're fake?
As always with “Spy on Me”, we are programming the festival in order to immerse ourselves in the paradoxes of dealing with technology, promoting encounters that are open and enjoyable as well as critical. Art has the ability to take up social developments as well as to remove them from their originally intended purpose. In a caring relationship and in the glitch, in the non-perfect, a future could emerge in which AI doesn't become a superpower that wipes out humanity, as is so often prophesied, but rather is used for coexistence based on solidarity.
HAU will present ten days of theatre, dance, performance, dialogue, games, and interactive installations. The foyers have been designed for the festival by NewfrontEars and Constanza Carvajal.
