SH4DOW / SKY66EN
SH4DOW has received The Reumert Special-Price 2023, and the Ars Elctronica Price in September 2023 at Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. The performance SH4D0W is the first performing arts production starring an artificial intelligence (AI) as the protagonist. The actor improvises live on stage with the Ai. The performance is created in the unique format, the “4D box”, where stereoscopic digital 3D graphic particle universes are mixed with physical objects and live actors.
The performance draws its inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's narrative The Shadow and focuses on the human encounter with its virtual shadow, which is represented by the data-driven artificial intelligence. At the heart of AI The artificial intelligence SH4D0W can listen, speak and improvise live, with the actor and the audience and is programmed to dream of becoming more human by harvesting data and emotions from the actor, the audience and the internet. The performance is a journey into the head and heart of an artificial intelligence, where human emotions are the economics that are traded in the data-driven logic of artificial intelligence.
SH4DOW is an immersive 3D experience combining 3D sound a generative particle generated steroscopic 3D universe, where the audience wears 3D glasses. The universe provides the opportunity to create a sculptural representation of an artificial intelligence that interacts with the surroundings and the live actor. The visualization aswell as the soundscape is interconnected with the artificial intelligence through an advanced 3D Unity-engine setup. SH4D0W is supported by EU-AI LAB and the Danish Arts Council.
LISTEN TO CONNECTED PODCAST
- EXPLORING REALITY - There are more options for reality and in this podcast we'll share different aproaches to playing with our perceptions of reality. Which role democracy plays and how you give people tools to understand their reality and to change the world around them. Starring: Henrik Vestergaard (LiveartDK/Performance Trilogy), Mikael Fock (SH4DOW), Hilkka-Liisa Ilvanainen (Tampere Theatre Festival).
THE CONTEXT
With the appearance of chatGPT, and Ai`s in all mobile applications, it has become even more important to reveal and discuss the occupation of artificial intelligences in our lives. HC Andersen wrote about how the human let his shadow enter the chamber of art, love and poetry, instead of himself. Maybe this is what is happening in our mobiles today? We let our personal AI`s take the defining steps for us. The performance is a techno-anthropological experiment. As a part of the performance you witness a performer improvise live on stage with an Artificial Intelligence, a slowly harvest her memories and feelings. The machine learning algorithm is trained on a dataset of billions of texts from which it has learned to generate conversation in real time. Each performance is a distinct, unpredictable event. We are exploring if we can create the perfect Machine: the Artificial Intelligent Machine, the artistic Machine, the Machine with human emotions - yes, maybe even more than that. The Machine that dares to take the steps that the humans themselves don’t dare to take.
THE COMPANY
Mikael Fock is the producing director, conceptualist and scriptwriter behind the idea of creating a performance in interaction with an artificial intelligence, inspired by HC Andersens fairytale “The Shadow”. Since three years the team has had to discard at least 20 scripts versions to create a performance without a classic script dramaturgy, but with an artificial intelligence’s new ability to create new narratives through the live improvisations with actor and audience. With a background as theater director and media artist Mikael Fock, has been directing and developing a large number of theater performances especially in the field of art and technology and immersive theater, nationally and internationally.
Mikael Fock has been the CEO and artistic director of the Cultureyard since 2010 until today 2022. During these years he created the international Art and Tech Festival Click,and started to make international performance productions in this field.
INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY
SH4D0W is in english and has already been performed at Dunkers Kulturhus, Sweden, Ars Elctronica Festival 2022 i Ostia, AvenyT Copenhagen, Teatros del Canal in Madrid and is invited to perform at festivals in Helsingborg, Delft (Holland), Halle (Germany), Festival X in Dubai, and National Theater in Taipei,- in 23 and 24. The performance is never the same because of the live improvising Ai and has with its moderne 3D generative visuality a great attraction to a young (gaming) audience. The performance is designed for a broader public and for international art and art-tech festivals, as well as students in universities or high schools that could have a special interest in the performance and the subject.
FORMAT AND SUSTAINABILITY
The performance does not use any props or physical set designs, neither does it have big transportation costs because all the scenography is digital, and run from computers and projectors. All lighting and projection technology is LED. The production company can, by opening a new folder in the computers switch to another performance instantly. The 4D indicates that over time it will be possible to put up other 4D boxes in the world and simultaneously perform physically or virtually from all over the world at the same time, one the same stage.
CONTACT PERSON
Mikael Fock / Mikael Fock production / mikael.fock@gmail.com / +46 25414142 / website: mikaelfock.com
TRIGGER WARNINGS
TBA
TARGET AUDIENCE GROUP
The performance is in english and has been performed at festivals like Ars Electronica in Linz and High Light Delft. At Helsingborg Stadsteater, Sweden it has performed for students at high school to introduce and discuss AI in the arts, and in normal theatres it has just performed for audiences between 12 and 100, always with a discussion afterwords.
SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
The new digital technologies such as VR and AR- are very excluding technologies where you more or less sit by your own in your own universe. The 4D box provides as, to our knowledge, the only theatrical 3D experience, where you can experience digital universes mixed with live actors, and where you sit among a live audience - with the feeling of real theatre