AI on stage: Prof. Dr. Nina Tecklenburg experiments with generative AI in the performing arts

Prof. Dr. Nina Tecklenburg has been at the forefront of blending cutting-edge AI technology with the performing arts. She recently participated in two events involving the use of artificial intelligence in theater. In November, she and performance group Interrobang, for which she serves as co-artistic director, premiered the participatory online performance COMMUNE AI. Additionally, in September, Tecklenburg held a lecture on "AI as Performer" as part of the Transmedia Arts Seminar series co-hosted by metaLAB (at) Harvard and Freie Universität Berlin with the Mahindra Humanities Center of Harvard University.

Tecklenburg’s lecture "AI as Performer" provided insights into the field of artificial intelligence in theater. Through analyzing past works and current rehearsal processes of Interrobang—which has been experimenting with the relationship between theater, participation, and digital culture for more than a decade—Tecklenburg addressed the impacts of digital culture and AI on theater and performance.

“One of the most fascinating aspects of the newest generation of chatbots,” according to the Transmedia Arts Seminar description by Tecklenburg, “seems to lie in an increased level of theatricality: self-learning machines such as ChatGPT impress with their ability to engage in vivid dialogue, to create empathy, to (re)act spontaneously, and to charm by critically self-reflecting on the ‘artificial’ nature of their real effects. Meanwhile, ChatGPT users immerse themselves in giving directions - prompts - and revel, mostly also self-critically, in the suspension of disbelief created by the AI.”

The new technical possibilities that AI systems bring to the performing arts “prompts us to ask how theater and performance change in the context of digital culture and how theater, as both a social and artistic/artificial event, can reflect the hidden mechanisms and impact of the latest digital technologies on our social lives.”

In the digital performance COMMUNE AI, co-produced with HAU4 (Hebbel am Ufer Berlin), Tecklenburg and Interrobang artistically explored the relation between an AI-driven reality and new forms of the social by creating an online commune together with the audience: “What is it like to live in a collective with artificial intelligence?” Participants joined the experience online and were able to express political goals, hopes, and expectations of communal life, while the AI made suggestions on how to implement them. The performance analyzed concerns such as, “How does the AI deal with typical communal conflicts about distribution of funds, cleaning schedules, ownership, power issues, and jealousy? How can the profit-oriented and often discriminatory structures of AI be made transparent and rectified?”

Tecklenburg’s involvement in emerging AI technologies offers cutting-edge insights into the future of performing arts and digitalization. The online performance COMMUNE AI can be experienced next on February 23-24, 2024 (as part of Errorrama Festival Kleintheater Luzern) and April 23-27, 2024 (with Theater am Werk Wien, ARGEkultur Salzburg, and HAU4).

By: Sophia Paudel, Bard College Berlin Communications

Post Date: 11-11-2023