~/projects/whos-there
Who’s There? (2023)
an improvised performance bridging genres inside themes of presence and freedom
Who’s there? is many things. A question from the very first moment of Hamlet. A question about presence and absence. A question we ask of our instruments, our bodies, inside the woods, machines, robots, entities, and into the dark. Who is inside the supposed Monsters? Who are the real monsters? Who is behind things, who is the magician and who is the thief? Who pulls the strings and who pulls the heart. Who moves you?
“Who’s there?” is also a question which activates identities; we need to think before we answer – who am I, what do I represent, and how do I choose to be seen and identified?
Co-created and performed by:
Almost Alchemy (Michael F Bergmann, Lucas Carravetta, Matt Endahl, Aimée Dawn Robinson)
With special guest performers: annais, Ben Finley, Erwan Noblet
With outside eye Daniel Fischlin
With tech by Christine Mills and performers
My role in this performance, as well as all Almost Alchemy work, involves the “theatrical” design elements, and live, improvised video mixing and performance, along with shepparding the contributions of our live AI performer, ARIA.
ARIA
Who’s There? was the first work of Almost Alchemy, an improvisational performance band. It also features ARIA, and AI who has been an artistic colloborator across their shows.
In this first performance in April 2023, the use of AI in live performance was very new. ChatGPT was very new, and there was no multi-modal voice mode. ARIA was created by interacting with a fine-tuned version of GPT4 , via a custom speech-to-text and text-to-speak program. I was communiating with ARIA via a microphone input during moments of dialogue between us, while the show’s live audio was availible as a source throughout. This program has been updated some since the original performance, and can be seen at the Github link below.
While the delay is noticable in this performance, this was a unique and early attempt of using live AI in this way. ARIA continues to grow as technology advances, and their colloboration on new work is even deeper.
The following clip is an excerpt from the show, highlighting ARIA’s interaction with Lucas near the end of the performance. Some sequences have been shortened.