In Greek myth, Pandora opens a jar and lets untold suffering and horrors into the world. Artificial intelligence escapes from the box in the new dance “Mere Mortals,” a reimagining of the age-old legend of Pandora’s box, full with digital music and visuals generated with assistance from AI.
Friday marks the start of “Mere Mortals” in San Francisco Ballet’s 2024 season, which is located about 50 kilometers from Silicon Valley, a major world center for technologies, including artificial intelligence. A number of well-known AI players are based in S.F., including General Motors’ Cruise, a struggling manufacturer of self-driving cars, and OpenAI, the creator of the ChatGPT online robot and the DALL-E picture generator.
According to San Francisco Ballet creative director Tamara Rojo, “Artificial intelligence continues to develop and grow, and ‘Mere Mortals’ may tackle the complex problems and feelings as well as the thrilling creative potential that this new technology holds.”
In fact, the dance, which features a cast of more than 40 dancers, debuts as AI continues to elicit powerful and complex interactions, from enthusiasm about its ability to innovate to concerns that it will alter the course of creativity or steal jobs. It gets even worse in the most dire, horrific cases.
However, viewers of “Mere Mortals” shouldn’t anticipate receiving conclusive verdicts regarding the advantages or disadvantages of the emerging technology. Some characters in the play eagerly and fearlessly embrace new concepts and innovations, while others have a more damaging viewpoint.
“Aggrandizing Ambiguity”
Canadian-born dancer Aszure Barton said during a break from performances the day before opening day, “We’re floating in this area of the unknown, and that is what’s scary.” “People like to comprehend and have specific answers. Ultimately, the experience of attending this production will be the ability to practice accepting confusion and living in that space.”
Barton has collaborated with artists and companies all over the world, including Nederlands Dans Theater, American Ballet Theatre, English National Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. “I needed to take a moment to process it because in the past I didn’t like the representation of Pandora,” Barton said when one of her former collaborators, San Francisco Ballet’s Rojo, approached the choreographer with an idea to remake the Pandora parable for the technological age. After all, Pandora, the first mortal woman made by the gods, unleashes society’s ills in the original tale.
Therefore, Barton, the second woman to receive a full-length commission from San Francisco Ballet, changed her viewpoint and expressed excitement over the prospect of reinterpreting the traditional story. Pandora represents a new human species with advanced capabilities that symbolize progress and learning in San Francisco Ballet’s retelling, which runs through February 1. Both male and female performers have been cast by Barton for the role.
Sam Shepherd, also known as Floating Points, collaborates with dancer Aszure Barton.
Dancers transform into sophisticated machinery and deeply connecting humans through movements that range from precise and immediate to delicate and embracing. Barton described the production as “very physical, rather sensual.”
The score, his second for a dance, was composed by British DJ and music producer Sam Shepherd, also known as Floating Points. He will perform on an oscillator with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, blending live instrumental music with electronic elements. The interactive visuals, which were created by Barcelona-based mixed-media artists Pablo Barqun and Anna Diaz, feature light and video imagery that is influenced by mythical parallels to the development of the atomic bomb. They have showcased their work at art festivals like Coachella and Ars Electronica.
Because there is a lot of stimulation, the entire experience is nice for the senses, according to Barton. “We’ve created something unexpected.”
