BMCC Leads Workshop on Inquiry into AI and XR technologies in New York City’s Contemporary Performance Scene

August 6, 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR) technologies are transforming our world. What are the impacts and potentials for the performing arts, for both artists and audiences?

Dr. Bertie Ferdman

In a two day workshop set for September 28 and 29 at NYU Tandon @ The Yard, scholars and artists from Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY), The City University of New York Graduate Center (CUNY Grad Center), Cornell Tech, and the Center for Responsible AI at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering will lead a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded workshop that investigates how live performance processes can help enhance AI and XR technologies.

The workshop, “Developing Dramaturgical Strategies for AI and XR alongside New York City’s Contemporary Performance Scene,” will bring together experts from the fields of performance, computer engineering, data science and experiential media to explore pathways to innovation and future partnerships between STEM and contemporary performance.

“Among other goals, the workshop will examine intermedial practices—those that use more than one medium—in the New York City contemporary performance scene,” explains BMCC Theatre Professor and Lead Principal Investigator Dr. Bertie C. Ferdman. “These interdisciplinary hybrid practices create new forms of storytelling and experiences that impact an audience in various ways and are critical sources of knowledge for XR and AI research.”

The project contributes to the work of professors and students at BMCC. As Dr. Ferdman notes, “One of the areas most impacted by developments in AI is education.  Our students will be shaping their careers in a world in which the tools of augmented reality and generative AI are increasingly present. We want to give them every possible advantage, as we prepare them for that experience.”

“Together with artist demos, panel discussions, and working group sessions, we will address questions about responsible uses of emerging technologies” said Dr. Ferdman. “The workshop will investigate the impact artistic processes can have on XR and AI, which are increasingly shaping our everyday life, our ways of working, imagining and connecting to others.”

Co-principal investigators for the project include Peter Eckersall, PhD Program in Theatre and Performance, The Graduate Center, CUNY; Julia Stoyanovich, Tandon School of Engineering and Center for Data Science, NYU; Michael Byrne, Digital Life Initiative, Cornell Tech; and R. Luke DuBois, Tandon School of Engineering, NYU.

The BMCC-led event is one of seven of multidisciplinary regional workshops across the country being funded by the NSF through the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Innovation, Culture project (ICC) which seeks to bring together artists, institutions and people working in the creative and technology sectors to support research and innovation at the intersection of culture, creativity and technology.

“These workshops will generate new networks and connections and support participants across the country to think broadly about new types of innovation and research and development support,” said Jeff Burke, professor and associate dean of research and technology for the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and Principal Investigator of the ICC project.

“Developing Dramaturgical Strategies for AI and XR alongside New York City’s Contemporary Performance Scene,” will take place on September 28 and 29, 2024. For more information, contact Dr. Bertie Ferdman at bferdman@bmcc.cuny.edu.

This project is supported by the National Science Foundation (Award TF-2345797).

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Workshop scheduled for September 28 and 29 at NYU Tandon at The Yard
  • BMCC Professor Bertie C. Ferdman is lead PI on the project
  • Project contributes to the work of BMCC professors and students

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