CONTENT:

The jumping off point for BIOADAPTED is Researcher and MIT Fellow Heidi Boisvert’s TED-Talk on measuring how technology affects us with biodata and building an algorithm to create biomedia which would inspire empathy and spark social change.

This inspired WGA-Award-nominated Alexis Roblan to write the play Affinity. part Excerpts of Affinity are interspersed with the AI generated letter to humanity “The Guardian Published” created by the artificial intelligence, GPT-3 (OpenAI’spowerful new language generator) as well as “Singular” - Possible futures of the singularity created by James Yu in conversation with GPT-3 TjašaFerme's "Future Couples" and documentary transcripts from panels and interviews. In the grand finale the audience will put GPT-3 on trial and interrogate it in real time..

INNOVATION:

The performers of BIOADAPTED will be wearing flying systems (harnesses) and every limb will be wired like a marionette suspended in the air. The elected audience members will wear EEG brain scanners which will utilize BCI systems to affect the movement of the wires and pulleys coordinating actors’ movements.

IMPACT:

Our goal is to investigate, interrogate, and educate all while delivering a unique, interactive, science-enhanced experience. AI regulation and its implementation in government systems concerns all of us, and through our process of blending art and science, we make these issues “digestible” empowering audiences to become active decision makers and alert citizens protecting their own agency and human sovereignty.

COMMUNITY:

Our audiences consist of millennials, theatregoers, early adopters, young scientists, developers, wearable enthusiasts, students, and anyone interested in trying new gadgets. Our focus is largely on projects about and for women, immigrants and minorities. We collaborate with a diverse circle of partners across the spectrum of cultural organizations, universities and science cohorts such as New Inc., Industry City, NYC Media Lab, TED, MIT, Graduate Center CUNY, Brooklyn College, New School and New York College of Technology, CUNY.

Between our work-in-progress presentation in 2022 and full production in 2023 we anticipate around 2000 engaged in-person attendees and about 10,000 livestream and video impressions worldwide.

TEAM:

Tjaša Ferme

CREATOR

Tjaša is the Founder and Artistic Director of Transforma Theatre Inc., dedicated to creating interactive theatre experiences at the nexus of science, consciousness and ritual. She is the creator of The Female Role Model Project blending interactive theatre with neuroscience produced on Off-Broadway at the premier Art and Tech Center 3-Legged Dog, in New York in November 2018. They were also featured at the Ammerman Biennial of Arts and Technology 2018. She is the creator of a short film Ophelia’s Flip (Cannes Film Festival, 2012), a farce hit Cocktales-Confessions of a Nymphomaniac (The Cell, Abingdon Theatre, Art Basel Miami), an interactive solo show, Wild Child in the City, and a new play My Marlene. Wild Child In The City premiered in NYC (TheaterLab), filled houses on European Tours and received an Audience Choice Award at 46th TSD-Week of Slovenian Drama. Wild Child won a grant from Trust for Mutual Understanding for a tour at ITI-UNESCO MonoAkt festival in Kosovo, winning a Special Jury Prize, and “Northern Meetings” in Siberia.

Heidi J. Boisvert

BCI DEVELOPER

Heidi Boisvert is an artist, scientist and creative technologist. Heidi is currently an MIT research affiliate and an Assistant Professor of AI and the Arts: Immersive Performance Technologies at the University of the Florida, College of the Arts, School of Theatre and Dance. She has previously been a TED Resident, and is currently developing the first media genome: an open-source biometric lab and AI system to isolate the narrative ingredients that move us to act. She is also a member of the New Inc’s 6th and & 7th cohort in the Creative Science track, and has been working with David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar on Theater of the Mind, an immersive theater piece for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as a Technology Designer.

Matthew McAdon

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Matthew McAdon has been collaborating with the STREB Company for fifteen years and is entering his ninth year as STREB’s Technical Director. Most recently, Mr. McAdon designed the Gunk Machine prototype used in Elizabeth Streb’s and Anne Bogart’s collaborative production Falling And Loving. With a background in mechanical and scenic design, prototype design, live performance technology, stunt rigging and technical direction, Mr. McAdon has collaborated with organizations such as Bang On A Can, American Repertory Theater, The Barclays Center, Lincoln Center, City Center, the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Natural History Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and many more.

Jingyao Shao

BCI ASSISTANT DEVELOPER

Jingyao Shao is a Chinese new media artist based in Brooklyn, who speculates different dimensions of self-perception through installations, performances, and research. With individual and collective narratives, her works aim to evoke present conversations about the architecture of interpersonal relationships, across the spectrum from isolation to connection. She is a memory archiver, conscientiously examining in retrieval and morphosis of what has been left in the past, and planting it in new mediums through her practices. She is curious about what memory resonates among people and seeks to build invisible ties to people and space with her cultivation. Her work is also influenced by her reflections and questions on culture and gender structures, both looking back on cultural nostalgia and forward to future bodies. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Washington and a Master of Professional degree at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Oliver Zeller

DESIGNER

Formerly Partner/Creative Director at design & architecture firm NAU - selected Adweek'sinaugural Talent 100 (adNAU) - and at tech startup Blackbox AI. Oliver has worked as aproduction designer on events and commercials for clients including Fiat Chrysler, Mercedes,Syfy, T-Mobile, Nike, Disney, Universal Studios and the world's leading event and experiencemarketing agency GPJ. His stage visuals have appeared in Madonna's Reinvention Tour andbeen projected onto the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal for Häagen-Dazs & Creative Time'sHoliday Light Show. His film credits include Sr. Digital Set Designer on Disney's Prince of Persia,Ast. Art Director on Netflix's The Woman in the Window & A24's After Yang and Oliver oversaw psychedelic design for Amazon Studios on Birds of Paradise. A Scenic Design member, Tech & Innovation Committee Chair, at United Scenic Artists, I.A.T.S.E. Local 829, Oliver has written extensively on the intersection of architecture and media for MARK Magazine and was guest speaker at the AEDES Architecture Forum in Berlin.

“Reaching people ‘where they are at’ is an important part of
making any change in society.”

Forbes Magazine

“Science in Theater festival proved a stunning demonstration of worlds colliding to provocative and enlightening effect.”

The Theatre Times

“AI, mixed reality, and Smartwear technology are among the draws at Transforma Theatre’s women-driven festival.”

American Theatre Magazine

“Engaging, entertaining, and just plain cool”

New York Theater

“You Can Hear What She’s Thinking – Literally”

TDF Stages

Transforma Theatre

Transforma Theatre Inc. is dedicated to creating interactive theatrical experiences at the nexus of science, consciousness and ritual. Transforma’s first piece was “The Female Role Model Project (FRMP)” using EEG headsets on stage to investigate contemporary gender structures from the perspective of four completely different female-identifying devisers sharing their autobiographical stories through a series of interactive games. FRMP was produced Off-Broadway in NYC’s premier hub for arts and technology - Three-Legged Dog (3LD) and at Bedlam Theatre, as part of the Edinburgh Fringe 2019. It received an Honorable mention in the Creativity category of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards and a nomination for the outstanding innovative design at New York Innovative Theatre Awards. It’s been called “Gender-and generation-transcending,” “Best 23 Shows of Edinburgh Fringe” by inews and brinkwire, and “Original, thought-provoking, funny, absorbing, GROUNDBREAKING WORK” by Kate Saffin, Fringe Review. In November 2021 Transforma created and produced a sold out Science in Theatre Festival at The Cell Theatre, featured in Forbes and American Theatre Magazine.

BIOADAPTED

CONTENT:

INNOVATION:

IMPACT:

COMMUNITY:

TEAM:

Tjaša Ferme

CREATOR

Heidi J. Boisvert

BCI DEVELOPER

Matthew McAdon

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Jingyao Shao

BCI ASSISTANT DEVELOPER

Oliver Zeller

DESIGNER

“Reaching people ‘where they are at’ is an important part of making any change in society.”

“Science in Theater festival proved a stunning demonstration of worlds colliding to provocative and enlightening effect.”

“AI, mixed reality, and Smartwear technology are among the draws at Transforma Theatre’s women-driven festival.”

“Engaging, entertaining, and just plain cool”

“You Can Hear What She’s Thinking – Literally”

WHAT IS GPT-3?

Transforma Theatre

Transforma Theatre

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“Reaching people ‘where they are at’ is an important part of
making any change in society.”