In his latest production, Alexander Whitley fuses dance, live motion capture and AI in a new double bill exploring the ancient and ongoing struggle between human autonomy and the forces that shape our fate.
Body and technology come face to face, providing an intimate window into our deepening relationship with intelligent machines in Mirror, and bringing a radically new perspective to Stravinsky’s masterpiece, The Rite of Spring.
Drawing on mythology, machine logic, and raw physicality, these two new works reflect our past and speculate on our future - from the haunting influence of algorithmic systems to the ritualistic surrender to something greater than ourselves.
Together, Mirror and The Rite of Spring offer a visceral journey through observation, transformation and the enduring human need to be seen.
Previews: 6&7 March, Dance East, Ipswich
World Premiere: 18-21 March, Sadler's Wells East, London
Consider the image that appears in your bathroom mirror every morning. The body in the mirror is not a second body taking up space in the world with you. It is not a copy of your body. It is not even a pale imitation of your body. The mirror-body is not a body at all. A mirror produces a reflection of your body. Reflections are not bodies. They are their own kind of thing. By the same token, today's AI systems trained on human thought and behavior are not minds. They are their own new kind of thing - something like a mirror. They don't produce thoughts or feelings any more than mirrors produce bodies. What they produce is a new kind of reflection.”— Shannon Vallor, The AI Mirror
