The arts have always grown in tandem with technology, be it developments in set-building and engineering that allow for new stunts and stage movements, or in terms of audio and the ability to bring sound and voice to new heights. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) touted as the next big thing, it was only a matter of time before it too was incorporated into theatrical productions. The question then is, should it?

This May, as part of the 2024 Singapore International Festival of Arts, Spanish company Agrupación Señor Serrano is bringing that conversation to the stage, with their new work Una Isla, which imagines an existential dialogue between artificial intelligence and performance. Ostensibly a dance performance, Una Isla integrates physical and digital performance languages, as the performers engage in dialogue with artificial intelligences, allowing them to generate text, images, music and holographic sculptures, prompting us to question our relationship with technology in this potentially new automated, AI world.

Speaking to Alex Serrano of Agrupación Señor Serrano, we found out more about the creation process behind this unique, incredibly contemporary piece of work, and the conversations surrounding it. “There’s a mixed attitude towards AI at present – some people are enthusiastic, but there’s also fear and anger. In comparison, I think about the 19th century Luddites in Europe during the Industrial Revolution, and how they destroyed machines because all the new industrial technology made things faster and more efficient, eventually putting a lot of workers out of jobs, or even further back when the printing machine was invented in the 15th century and also made some jobs obsolete,” he says. “What we do with AI is dependent on us – whether we use it for war, or we use it to cure cancer.”

What Una Isla intends to do then is not to promote AI as the future, but harnessing it to reinforce the work’s concept and poetics, and invites us to explore the possibilities of imagining new ways of living together. “Una Isla is a culmination of our previous works, in that we’ve always worked with new media and video cameras and interactive devices, such that we’ve developed a strong multimedia language within our core practice,” says Alex. “This show focuses a bit more on choreography here, and where new media and devices come in is how we make meaning out of say, putting a chair onstage, and making is symbolise something, either inherently, or how we interact with it. That’s the same approach we have when we put new media and AI onstage, and we wanted it to feel like the audience was sailing into a tempest and emerging on an island, where it would explore how a community could interact or live together.”

Unlike some other shows, the AI used in the show is not a live performer, but rather a collaborator in the creative process that contributed to various elements. “We worked mostly with OpenAI, and wanted it to help us imagine costumes and lighting design. We worked on it for about a year before its premiere, and kept coming back to conversations about society and the way we live and interact with each other. When we pitched this idea to our AI, it came back with very Broadway musical type ideas since it was fed on mostly American culture and information, before we decided to develop it ourselves where it became this conversation about a castaway jumping from one island to another, as he finds out how to integrate into different societies.”

“The AI itself was also key to the choreography, where we asked it what we should put onstage, and we ended up with a combination of classical dance, sports, gymnastics and even yoga as this castaway jumps from one island to another, finding his own choreography and movement with each community,” he adds. “Back then, the images generated were still very deformed or even monstrous, a time when AI wasn’t fully-developed yet, and it could be hard to ask it create an entire routine. So instead, we used this as the base and continued to let it develop from there, exploring how people connect and communicate through different movements, whether through celebration from sporting wins, or even rugby moves.” 

While based in Barcelona, Agrupación Señor Serrano considers themselves a rather international company, with their team spread out across Europe while they travel to put on shows, and spreading the work to whoever is willing to watch. “We do have a huge theatre tradition here in Spain, but much of the time it’s still mostly classical work, and it can be hard to find a space for what our company does here,” says Alex. “A lot has changed over the last decade or so though, and we’re grateful to be receiving grants and subsidies, but it can be tricky at times. Our shows end up being performed at various festivals because of the nature of our shows, but at the end of the day, the people who come to see our shows are the ones that we need and understand what we’re going for.”

And as for what he hopes audience members here take away from the show, Alex focuses on the idea of the conversations that arise, both onstage and after watching it. “On screen, we will be projecting the dialogue between ourselves and the AI, and it’s important to show people our processes and reveal that we’re not trying to immerse you in this lie that is theatre,” he says. “It’s not about having them think a certain way, but ultimately to leave them with questions and the ability to think more widely, to think about how we should relate to each other and how we should live.”

“If we don’t understand each other, or are not willing to, then there will never be a way to live together in this. There needs to be more people who listen to each other, and build community,” he concludes. “Perhaps that would foster more individual rights, and result in societies and cities that are being designed and developed together, as we talk to each other more, engage in conversation, and reconnect with other people to make a change.”

Photo Credit: Agrupación Señor Serrano (Featured Image), Leafhopper

Una Isla plays from 18th to 19th May 2024 at SOTA Drama Theatre as part of Singapore International Festival of Arts 2024. Tickets available here

SIFA 2024: They Declare runs from 17th May to 2nd June 2024 across various venues. Tickets and full programme available here