Prometheus Firebringer
Annie Dorsen
- Price
- $27*
- Genre
- Theater
- Season
- Winter/Spring 2025
- DATE
- JAN 24-25
- TIME
- FRI-SAT, 8:30 PM
- RUNTIME
- Approx. 50 minutes, no intermission
- COUNTRY
- USA
- PROGRAM
- Not yet available
* Discounts available for REDCAT members, students & the CalArts faculty and staff
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About
Annie Dorsen considers how the proliferation of artificial intelligence in our daily lives feels unprecedented and asks: “Have we been here before?” Each evening of this performance, the predictive text model GPT-4 generates speculative versions of the lost final play of Aeschylus’ Prometheia trilogy. Performed by a chorus of AI-generated Greek masks, this story from ancient Greek mythology tells how Prometheus stole the god’s fire for humans–sparking sudden and dramatic advances in technology and the arts, as well as dramatic new sources of conflict. Dorsen delivers a text composed entirely of quotes from the internet on tragedy and memory, what machines are learning from us, and knowledge (and ignorance) of societal undoing. At the heart of the piece lies the same question that philosopher Simon Critchley observes animates Greek tragedy: “What shall I do?” Probing existential questions about truth and agency, this engaging performance continues Dorsen’s exploration of the contradictory impacts of technology.
Prometheus Firebringer is part of the performance program for All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, and curated by Katy Dammers and Edgar Miramontes.
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. PST ART: Art & Science Collide, the latest edition of this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art.
Please note: Prometheus Firebringer contains loud sounds.
Dorsen’s lecture is forcefully beneficial as an examination of our obeisance to technology.
—
Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times
about the artist
Annie Dorsen
Annie Dorsen is a theater director working at the intersection of algorithmic art and live performance. Her most recent project, Prometheus Firebringer, premiered at Bryn Mawr College in January 2023, and had a New York premiere at The Chocolate Factory in May, co-produced by New York Live Arts and MAX Media Art Xploration. The piece then moved Off-Broadway to Theater for A New Audience in Fall 2023.
Previous algorithmic performances include Infinite Sun, an algorithmic sound installation commissioned by the Sharjah Biennial 14 (2019), The Great Outdoors (2017), Yesterday Tomorrow (2015), A Piece of Work (2013), Spokaoke (2012), and Hello Hi There (2010). These pieces have been presented at numerous theatres and festivals world-wide, including at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York), Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), the steirischer herbst festival (Graz), the Holland Festival (Amsterdam), and Festival d’Automne (Paris).
A retrospective of Annie Dorsen’s algorithmic work was presented in 2022, at Bryn Mawr College with major support by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. The publication Algorithmic Theater: Essays and Dialogues, 2012-2022 was created as a literary companion to the event, collecting a decade of writings by and about Dorsen, including dialogues with artistic collaborators in addition to provocative essays on theater and technology.
She has taught at University of Chicago and Bard College, and been a frequent guest lecturer at numerous universities and art schools in the US and abroad.
Dorsen is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Spalding Gray Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists Award, and the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts.
She recently graduated from NYU School of Law, with a focus on tech policy and civil rights.
cast & creative team
Writer/Director/Performer: Annie Dorsen
Sound Design: Ian Douglas-Moore
Video and Systems Design: Ryan Holsopple
Lighting Design / Technical Direction: Ruth Waldeyer
Software design and Programming: Sukanya Aneja
Voice Prints: Okwui Okpokwasili, Livia Reiner
3D Artist: Harry Kleeman
Dramaturgy: Tom Sellar
Producer: Natasha Katerinopoulos
credits
Exhibition Curator: Daniela Lieja Quintanar
Performance Program Curators: Katy Dammers, Daniela Lieja Quintanar, and Edgar Miramontes
Assistant Curator: Talia Heiman
Technical Director: Adam Matthew
Exhibition Designer: Adalberto Charvel
Graphic Designer: Ella Gold
Publication: REDCAT/East of Borneo
Project Director: Joao Ribas
Original support for Prometheus Firebringer was provided to Bryn Mawr College by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia. Prometheus Firebringer is supported in part by commissions from New York Live Arts’ Live Feed Residency Program with additional support from Partners for New Performance, and Media Art Xploration’s MAXmachina laboratory, funded in part by Science Sandbox. The piece was developed with the support of the Eureka Commissions program created by Onassis Foundation, and the Mercury Store.
