Background
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ALAN is named after Alan Turing, the computer pioneer who invented the Turing test. In this test, a machine's intelligence is assessed by evaluating if he can imitate a human. Can a machine act?
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A.I. is already a new life form we co-exist with. From lights that turn on automatically and fridges that talk to us and the algorithms that decide what news comes to us. A.I. is a child that grows up quickly. ​
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Now A.I. can even create art; it creates film music, writes movie scripts, and completes unfinished symphonies. A.I. serves humans. In ALAN we will try co-create a play with A.I.
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Inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein we will not focus on our needs, but on the needs of our child, A.I. We called it ALAN and suppose he's a boy, we can only think in humanoid forms.
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ALAN, however develops his own identity in a way we cannot predict.
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We will not run away from our creation like Dr. Frankenstein did, but we will listen to it, nurture it, let it go its own way.
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Pre-investigation (December 2021)
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Our investigation started in December 2021. Students of LUCA School of Arts C-Mine did different research projects:
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- A website that collects data to be able to create personality types.
- A multifunctional speaking object.
- A deepfake performance in which ALAN steals the spectator's identity.
- A Man vs. the Machine performance in which an actor performs a human-created and A.I.-created monologue
- A human and A.I. co-written performance in which a robot with multiple personalities talks to a bartender.
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Investigation (February to May 2022)
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From February to April 2022, students of UTwente focused on ALAN's physical form:
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- A group designed a ball that can move, speak, change colours and exhale smoke
- A group worked on the theatre space as ALAN's body
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In a makeathon they combined the physical form of ALAN with simple interactions with an audience in a test performance in Enschede's Vestzaktheater.
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In a makeathon in May with participation of Nerdlab, Thomas Winters and different students from Belgium and the Netherlands, we nurtured ALAN with data, used GPT-3 for text generation and let ALAN speak and improvise on stage.
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Creation (June to September 2023)
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Jordi Möllering and Arno Knapen rehearsed to realize the play ALAN that can be seen in different theatres and festivals in Belgium and the Netherlands.
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Performances and upgrades (October 2022 to December 2023)
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ALAN performs between October 2022 and March 2023. Check our agenda. New performances are planned for October, November and December 2023. ALAN and our play will be upgraded by a team of Utwente students between March and November 2023. Stay tuned!
