Eight Algorithms for Awakening
Kenneth Collins (Writer, Director, Digital Media Designer, Character Designer, Animator, Scenic Designer, Costumer Designer, Performer)
Eight Algorithms for Awakening is an interdisciplinary, performance-art project in which digital avatars and human bodies share the stage in an unlikely exploration of expanded consciousness. Inspired by Ray Kurzweil’s book The Age of Spiritual Machines, this performance traverses the territory “where the soul and silicon chip unite.”
On the edge of the coming singularity, this project speculates about what will happen when Artificial Intelligence is introduced to millennia-old, ancient-wisdom teachings. Will these new AI digital beings experience consciousness or achieve enlightenment? And if so, can they somehow help the rest of us transcend the limitations of our ephemeral materiality?
Audiences are invited to sit on meditation cushions with headphones at private listening stations located around the outside of a freestanding, octagon-shaped room. At these stations they view a single performer inside the room through two-way-mirrored windows. The performer repeats mantras, affirmations, and meditative exercises prompted by a digital avatar who appears on the eight video screens surrounding them.
