MAXforum: Playing with Fire

Media Art Xploration

MAXforum presents lively conversations among artists, artist-engineers, scientists, and creative technologists.

ONX Studio

MAXforum: Playing with FireA﻿nnie Dorsen &amp; Tal LinzenCreative muse, blunt instrument, or societal threat? Theater director and MacArthur Fellow Annie Dorsen talks with NYU and Google data scientist, linguist, and cognitive psychologist Tal Linzen about the challenges and insights that come from working with generative AI. They explore how the artistic process helps us wrestle with the drastic changes that AI is quickly bringing about, diving into the difference between current AI technologies and how humans learn so quickly with relatively little data.Dorsen’s previous works in algorithmic theater have included Infinite Sun (2019), a sound installation that plays with the spiritual power of chants and feedback loops, and A Piece of Work (2013), a play that used algorithms and bots to reimagine Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Join us as we get a sneak peek into Dorsen’s new work, Prometheus Firebringer, which uses GPT-3 to speculate on the lost works of Aeschylus’ Prometheus trilogy, and hear what artists and scientists are really doing when they integrate AI into their processes.

Annie Dorsen is a director and writer whose works explore the intersection of algorithmic art and live performance. Her most recent project, INFINITE SUN, is an algorithmic sound installation commissioned by the Sharjah Biennial 14. Previous performance projects, including THE GREAT OUTDOORS (2017), YESTERDAY TOMORROW (2015), A PIECE OF WORK (2013) and HELLO HI THERE (2010), have been widely presented in the US and internationally. The script for A PIECE OF WORK was published by Ugly Duckling Presse, and she has contributed essays for The Drama Review, Theatre Magazine, Etcetera, Frakcija, and Performing Arts Journal (PAJ). She is the co-creator of the 2008 Broadway musical PASSING STRANGE which she also directed. Dorsen has received a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2018 Spalding Gray Award, a 2016 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists Award, and the 2014 Herb Alpert Award for the Arts in Theatre.

Tal Linzen is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Data Science at New York University, where he studies the connections between human and artificial intelligence, focusing on language: what can AI systems teach us about how humans learn and understand language, and how can we advance AI using what we know about humans? Before NYU, he held positions at Johns Hopkins University and Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. He has received awards from Google and the National Science Foundation.

MAX’s goal is to bring storytellers, performers, scientists, creative technologists, and audiences where they have never been before, giving thinkers in various disciplines an opportunity to explore and invent the future of our planet and democracy. In our public programs, we illuminate scientific innovation through artistic expression and broaden artistic expression through scientific discoveries. Your support goes a long way at MAX – into higher dimensions!The MAXforum conversation series is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Media Art Xploration, Inc is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible. <a href="https://mediaartexploration.kindful.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Donate</a>

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MAXforum: Playing with Fire

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