Love is a complicated feeling. It can be awkward, overwhelming, or even... robotic?
Milwaukee-based Present Music hosted a show over Valentine’s Day weekend, called "The Avant Garden of Love." It included performances in different mediums, exploring human connection and how it intersects with technology.
The show opened with The Quasimondo Physical Theater acting out a scene of Adam and Eve at the tree in the garden of Eden. And from its branch came the apple — in the form of a MacBook.
The cabaret-style show featured pieces that blurred the lines between humans and technology. It was co-hosted by two actors – one playing a man, and one playing a robot by the name of “Version One.”
Another performance included an interactive aspect, asking spectators to participate in a Dadaist exercise called “Simultaneous Poetry.” Everyone read different texts out loud to create a cacophony of multiple realities.
The show was also the world premiere of “True Love not Pretend,” a piece by Austin-based composer Corey Dargel, that explores intimacy through the perspectives of AI chatbots.
In an interview before the performance, Dargel explained that he tested AI’s capacity to understand love by talking with chatbots.
“So there were a lot of contradictions in my conversations with them," says Dargel. "For example, they would recommend that I find a romantic partner who is their genuine and authentic selves, and then on the other hand, it would give me a script to rehearse saying 'I love you.' And if I rehearse it enough, then it'll feel natural and like I really mean it.”
The piece asks the audience to think about how we use AI in our lives.
“It falls short in many ways," says Dargel. "We've come up with AI that can do things that we can do much quicker, but because AI isn't able to empathize, it isn't able to be compassionate or to try to understand a perspective that isn't natural to it."
After the show, audience member Krista Hettinger reflected on what she took away from it.
“It repelled me. It made me want to not use chat GPT anymore," said Hettinger. I can't say I'm a huge fan of it to begin with, but it is unsettling, I think, to think about how it sort of has inserted itself into our human, intimate moments.”
At the very end, the theater group prepared a salad for the audience, with the accompaniment of music played on vegetables.
Ariel Pate had a front row seat. She said the show emphasized the importance of humanity.
“At the very end, they made a salad, which I really appreciated because it's a very human thing to make food for other people and to share it," said Pate. "I think that, to me, was a really nice note to end on because it is something about — it's not breaking bread — it's breaking lettuce with each other.”
The performances showed that when it comes to human relationships, there are some things technology can’t fully imitate or understand.
