“Plagiary’s text and imagery is generated by hyper-intelligent computer programs with broad creative freedom,” reads a sign outside Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio. “It may include offensive language, concepts and context.”
This AI-directed dance work constructed by award-winning Australian choreographer Alisdair Macindoe is playing as part of the second-ever Now or Never festival, a new addition to Melbourne’s cultural scene focused on the intersection of art, sound, technology and ideas. From where we’re sitting, Plagiary couldn’t better exemplify those themes.
After passing several similar ominous warning signs on the way in, it’s hard to know what to expect from this 55-minute experience. As we’re each handed a pair of cardboard glasses and told it’s fine to capture the show on our phones, my curiosity level spikes to an 11. Why would a group of dancers, surely the natural antagonists of creativity-crushing artificial intelligence, decide to love thy enemy?
The ensemble cast is already onstage as we take our seats, hidden not-so-well behind a clear plastic screen, toying with racks of costumes and bouncing around in their individual warm-up routines. A pre-show announcement from a computer-generated voice explains that each dancer will receive instructions from an earpiece, which they are free to interpret as they see fit. We in the audience also have choices to make: watch the screen to perv at the AI-written prompts the performers are interpreting, or slip on our fancy glasses to block it all out.
As the dancers begin to undulate through the space, those of us who’ve shunned the glasses are quickly reduced to giggles by the prompts, which are uncanny valley central for anyone who’s ever listened to a choreographer teach. Straightforward instructions (“reduce the energy level of your movements by 20 per cent”) are interspersed with wildly ambiguous prompts (“the inner curve of the eyebrows guide you on a journey”). Watching each member of the ensemble skillfully manifest these bizarre cues into visually pleasing movements is a testament to their talent and adaptability. This is especially apparent when the prompts border on physical impossibilities, such as when the entire company is simultaneously asked to touch one dancer “with the surface of the cervical spine”. Impressively, they pretty much pull it off.
AI video by Sam Mcgilp enhances the preternatural precision of the work, showing a candle-laden room that transformed impossibly fast. As the dancers gallop (and slide, and collide) towards the AI apocalypse, two conduct a spookily business-like interview about the nature of the artform – “perhaps resistance is the dance itself”.
The high-art premise runs the risk of becoming a navel-gazing competition, but instead we are very much in on the joke. Even the title, which means ‘one who plagiarises’, comes with a wink and a nudge. In reality, the only one Macindoe is plagiarising is himself.
Choreographers shouldn’t be worried about AI being out for their jobs just yet, especially as the pace of this artistic unravelling does drag a little at times. However, if there’s one thing that’s certain with this experimental show, it’s that no two performances will be the same.
Plagiary is at Arts Centre Melbourne until August 31 and will also tour to the Sydney Opera House in September. Tickets start from $25 and you can get yours over here.
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