{"id":4005,"date":"2024-04-06T20:03:40","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T20:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/?p=4005"},"modified":"2024-06-06T15:23:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T15:23:47","slug":"bmo-lab-director-david-rokeby-joins-multimedia-pioneer-laurie-anderson-on-stage-at-koerner-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/?p=4005","title":{"rendered":"BMO Lab Director David Rokeby joins multimedia pioneer Laurie Anderson on stage at Koerner Hall, April 5, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 4, 2024 by Tara Maher and David Rokeby <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Example output of Voice Scroll. Photo credit: David Rokeby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BMO Lab for Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies and AI<\/a>\u00a0Director David Rokeby joined multimedia performance and installation artist\u00a0Laurie Anderson<\/a>\u00a0to present one of the lab\u2019s research projects as part of her sold-out show on Friday, April 5, 2024, at\u00a0Koerner Hall<\/a>\u00a0in the Royal Conservatory of Music. Anderson has been engaged with innovative technologies throughout her career and became fascinated by BMO Lab\u2019s Voice Scroll during informal Zoom sessions hosted by BMO Lab’s AI as Foil residency program with mutual friend and current lab artist-in-residence American poet Nick Flynn. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Voice Scroll project is an AI system that transforms spoken voice into a continually evolving visual panorama in real time. It is a product of BMO Lab\u2019s continuing exploration of AI in the context of live performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConventionally one might think of Voice Scroll as a system that illustrates the words that you speak,\u201d says Rokeby. \u201cBut really, I think it’s more helpful and honest to think of it in these terms: Through its training, the AI model has constructed a world… something called the \u2018latent space\u2019… a world of possibilities linking words and images, and we can use our spoken words as a means of navigating this remarkable, and remarkably strange, landscape.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Rokeby, Anderson has been thinking about and working in AI-related spheres for many years, which makes her a great collaborator. \u201cShe comes from a position of decades of knowledge and experience in this space, but also with a really generous curiosity,\u201d says Rokeby. \u201cIt’s been wonderful to wander through the crazy set of possibilities and strangenesses of what these AI systems can do with her.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a recent exploratory zoom session, Anderson surprised Rokeby by suggesting she feature Voice Scroll in her upcoming Koerner Hall concert. And so, it transpired that half-way through her concert, Anderson invited Rokeby on stage, and together, they spent ten minutes exploring Voice Scroll together, discussing its possibilities and implications, and offering some audience members the chance to interact with the system. According to Rokeby, it was a wonderful experience, and a wonderful opportunity to share the work the Lab does with a broader public. Given that we are all affected by AI technology, sharing insights into these technologies beyond the bounds of academia is an important part of BMO Lab\u2019s mandate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anderson will be working with the Lab as part of the AI as Foil artist-in-residence program in the near future. Rokeby is very excited about this prospect as he believes that working with Anderson, with her creativity, her depth of experience and her curiosity, will lead to some very interesting new directions and possibilities for the lab\u2019s research. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anderson and Rokeby celebrating after the concert.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 4, 2024 by Tara Maher and David Rokeby  BMO Lab for Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies and AI\u00a0Director David Rokeby joined multimedia performance and installation artist\u00a0Laurie Anderson\u00a0to present one of the lab\u2019s research projects as part of her sold-out show on Friday, April 5, 2024, at\u00a0Koerner Hall\u00a0in the Royal Conservatory of Music. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog-posts","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4005"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4135,"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005\/revisions\/4135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}