August 24, 2024, 6PM & 7PM
PERFORMANCE | TECHNOLOGY
A hybrid, devised performance piece investigating our place in a data-filled world and the possibility of more equitable futures alongside AI.
August 24, 2024, 6PM & 7PM
PERFORMANCE | TECHNOLOGY
A hybrid, devised performance piece investigating our place in a data-filled world and the possibility of more equitable futures alongside AI.
An IGNITE Series PVD+ Project
Conceived and Created by Ioana Jucan with Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo (performing as SΔMMUS) and others.
(Machine) Learning to Be
August 24, 2024, 6PM & 7PM
The Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Fishman Studio
Blending theatrical conventions, choreographed movement, poetry, and artistic experiments with machine learning, (Machine) Learning to Be is a participatory, devised, hybrid multimedia performance experience that engages with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and their societal impacts. Rooted in visions of decolonial AI, the performance aims to challenge existing structures of control and envision more equitable futures alongside AI technology. Part of the Data Fluencies Theatre Project, this interdisciplinary initiative involves artists and researchers from diverse backgrounds. The project’s hybrid format, combining in-person and online elements, not only expands accessibility but also transforms the internet into a platform for both performance and critical investigation. Alongside a custom-based online venue, the performance features interactive choreographic interfaces that aim to engage AI as embodiment technologies and AI and human characters that aims to convey the multifaceted nature of AI, its dangers and possibilities.
Please Note: To be able to fully engage with this experience, we encourage you to bring a smartphone or electronic device that is capable of capturing QR codes and using a browser window.
Join Us
Get your free tickets to (Machine) Learning To Be on August 24!
Ioana B. Jucanis a Providence-based, Romanian artist and scholar. Informed by decolonial and feminist thought and practice, her current research follows several intersecting threads: media epistemologies and mechanisms of knowledge, affect, and value production in the age of "post-truth" and big data; and more just and sustainable alternatives to toxic capitalist models and mindsets as well as aesthetic practices that can help us imagine and enact such alternatives. She is the author of Malicious Deceivers: Thinking Machine and Performative Objects(Stanford University Press, 2023) and of Cosmology of Worlds Apart (NY: O Balthazar Press, 2017). Jucan’s artistic work spans multimedia performance, theatre directing, and installation art and has been performed internationally. Jucan holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from Brown University and is Assistant Professor of Social and Cultural Inquiry at Emerson College. https://ioanajucan.com/
Courtesy of the artistKatherine Helen Fisher
Katherine Helen Fisher is an Emmy Award-nominated director, choreographer, and performer whose work explores the confluence of dance and emerging technology. She is the co-founder of Safety Third Productions, a Los Angeles-based digital media studio focused on creating movement-based digital media and immersive/interactive content. Katherine has directed music videos for Radiohead and Rufus Wainwright, her film CEILING won the award for Best Dance Short at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. She is also the creator of a participatory performance garment, Le Monstre, which won a Jury Prize for Best Paper at The 21st International Symposium on Wearable Computers. Her work for the stage and screen has been presented and commissioned by prestigious institutions such as Dance Now, Judson Church, Danspace Project, Los Angeles Dance Project, The Lincoln Center Dance Films Association, ADF, The REDCAT, The Music Center, Hermès, and at the Microsoft Global Exchange Conference. In addition to her artistic work, Katherine is committed to supporting the work of marginalized creative communities by advocating for more equitable remuneration for cultural producers. Katherine holds an MFA in dance from Sarah Lawrence College and a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is currently serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts in the Collaborative Arts Department. http://katherinehelenfisher.com/
Courtesy of the artistEnongo Lumumba-Kasongo
Dr. Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo (SAMMUS) is a black feminist rapper, beatmaker, and scholar from Ithaca, NY with Ivorian and Congolese family roots. She holds a PhD in science and technology studies (STS) from Cornell University and is currently the David S. Josephson assistant professor in music at Brown University. She also works closely with the Brown Arts Institute, the STS steering committee at Brown, Glow Up Games, and The Keepers Hip Hop Collective. Her research explorations include projects about her evolving revision praxis as a songwriter, the discourse surrounding rap performance and AI, and the emergence of a rap subgenre she calls “gamer-rap.” www.enongo.net
Courtesy of the artistJae Neal
Jae Nealwas born and raised in Michigan and received their training from Western Michigan University. There, they performed in professional works such as Strict Love by Doug Varone, Temporal Trance by Frank Chavez and Harrison McEldowney’s Dance Sport. When relocating to New York, Jae had the privilege of working with MSA talent agency as well as dancing with SYREN Modern Dance, Christina Noel Reaves and the creature, Catapult Entertainment, and Katherine Helen Fisher Dance. Jae joined A.I.M by Kyle Abraham in 2011 and has since focused their dance intentions primarily in being a collaborator and teacher for the company. Now residing in California, Jae continues their work with A.I.M while simultaneously branching out to more music theatre based projects as they continue to grow their teaching and dancing network on the west coast.
Courtesy of the artistTushar Mathew
Tushar Mathew is a theatre maker, teacher, and actor from India. Tushar’s teaching and creative pursuits often focuses on movement, physical embodiment, storytelling, and our relationship to the environment. He is also deeply interested in how the playing of games acts as a portal towards physical awareness, ensemble building, listening, and understanding dramatic conflict. He is the co-founder of the Otherland Theatre Ensemble, a physical theatre devising company who tell stories of underdogs and outcasts who inhabit outrageous worlds and are moved by universal struggles. Tushar is currently an Assistant Professor in the Performing Arts Department at Emerson College, Boston.www.tusharmathew.com
Courtesy of the artistDavid Mesiha
David Mesihais a Toronto and Vancouver based, award-winning music composer, sound/video designer and co-artistic director of Theatre Conspiracy. While studying music composition at Simon Fraser University, David worked as a research assistant with professor Arne Eigenfeldt in developing AI-Driven generative music systems. As a designer and theatre maker, David’s practice centres around examining questions of form in interactive and performance arts. His work has been presented at various national and international venues and festivals including, England, Scotland, Mexico and Argentina. His inter-disciplinary works integrate VR, AR and video game design in imagining new creative spaces that open dialog between visual arts traditions and those of the performing arts. www.davidmesiha.com
Courtesy of the artistAidan Nelson
Aidan Nelsonis a creative developer and educator working to create more engaging and human ways for people to connect in physical and hybrid arts spaces. He works as a technical director for the Park Avenue Armory, leads a studio creating immersive 3D virtual experiences with museums and cultural organizations, and teaches graduate courses on media technologies at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. https://www.aidanjnelson.com/
Courtesy of the artistSahar Sajadieh
Sahar Sajadieh is a performance/media artivist (artist + activist) and theorist. She is a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC San Diego with a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology from UCSB. Her educational background is in Performance Studies (MA @NYU) and Computer Science and Theater (BSc and BA @UBC). Sahar’s research lies at the intersection of computational arts, artificial intelligence, social justice-oriented design, and performance/media theory. She is interested in the creative and critical applications of natural language processing, machine learning, extended reality, and robotics as means of storytelling, poetic expression, and social intervention. www.saharsajadieh.com/
Courtesy of the artistGavan Cheema
Gavan Cheema is a director, writer, producer, dramaturg and co-Artistic Director of Theatre Conspiracy. She is based out of Vancouver: the traditional, unceded, and occupied territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is a first generation Canadian, with roots coming from the five rivers of Punjab. She is a recent recipient of the Sam Payne Award for Most Promising Emerging Artist at the Jessie Richardson Awards.Gavan’s play Himmat premiered in Vancouver at The Cultch in May 2022 and will be presented at the Surrey Civic Theatres in Spring 2024. She holds a double major from the University of British Columbia in Theatre and History, as well as a high school teaching certification. She has created work and directed for various local, national and international stages and has extensive experience in youth engagement, theatre education and workshop facilitation.
Courtesy of the artistKite (Dr. Suzanne Kite)
Kite (Dr. Suzanne Kite) is an Oglála Lakȟóta performance artist, visual artist, and composer raised in Southern California, with a BFA from CalArts in music composition,and an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School, and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montreal. Kite’s scholarship and practice investigate contemporary Lakȟóta ontologies through research-creation, computational media, and performance, often working in collaboration with family and community members. Recently, Kite has been developing body interfaces for machine learning driven performance and sculptures generated by dreams, and experimental sound and video work. https://www.kitekitekitekite.com/
Yuguang (YG) Zhang is a New York-based new media / AI artist. His current practice, which incorporates interactive media, installation, and live performance, explores the connections we make with the ubiquitous AI systems embedded around us, the surprises and struggles we have when we fully / partially surrender our authorship to intelligent algorithms, and the cultural & ethical shifts that come along when we’re overwhelmed by such “creative” AIs. He’s a recipient of the S+T+ARTS S2S award and the Re:Humanism Art Prize. His works have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Google AMI, Media Art Xploration (MAX), and showcased internationally at MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts (Italy), Némo Biennial of Digital Arts (France), New Inc., CultureHub (USA), Beijing Times Art Museum (China), CVPR, NeurIPS, and more. www.ygzhang.com/
Courtesy of the artistMingyong Cheng
Mingyong Cheng, originating from Beijing and now an interdisciplinary new media artist based in California, is at the intersection of AI, generative art, and environmental research. With an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts from Duke University earned in 2021, Mingyong is deepening her inquiry at the University of California, San Diego, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Art Practice. Her work intricately weaves together visual arts and a passion for environmental studies, treating AI as an integral collaborator in the creative process. Mingyong’s research explores the synergy between synthetic intelligence and human creativity to reinterpret historical narratives, illuminate contemporary issues, and speculate on alternative futures. This inquiry reflects a broader ambition to understand how generative AI can transform our interaction with the past, inform our present, and help us envisage varied futures. Her work has been showcased internationally such as Siggraph Asia Art Gallery, NeurIPS Creative AI Track, and various global venues. https://www.mingyongcheng.com/
Brown Arts’ IGNITE Series uplifts the spirit of artistic collaboration across Brown, Providence, the Rhode Island region, and beyond. Ignite your creative curiosity through this multi-year series of programs, activations, interventions, and investigations.
