Video, Film and Performance
Janet Biggs is a research-based, interdisciplinary artist known for her immersive work in video, film, and performance. Biggs’ work often focuses on individuals in extreme landscapes or situations, navigating the territory between art, science, and technology. I have been fortunate to work with Janet Biggs on a range of film and performance projects since 2018, with roles spanning AI development, music composition, and creative collaboration.
Entanglements (2022) is a work by artist Janet Biggs, mathematician Agnieszka Miedlar, and physicist Daniel Tapia Takaki, with music composed by me.
Six-channel high-definition video installation with sound and interactive whiteboards.
Running time: three endless loops, 05:08 each, total running time 15:24.
This work was commissioned and supported by the Integrated Arts Research Initiative (IARI) at the Spencer Museum of Art in collaboration with the Arts at CERN.
A.I. Anne is an ongoing performance and research project developed by Janet Biggs and me in collaboration with vocalist Mary Esther Carter. Across live and live-streamed performances, the project explores neurodiverse inclusion in creative collaborations between humans and AI through improvisation, vocalization, movement, and storytelling.
My role has included developing the AI systems for the project and helping shape its broader creative direction, with work spanning vocalization, emotional prosody, and real-time interaction. At its core, A.I. Anne considers how absent and neurodiverse voices might be more meaningfully included in both AI development and creative technology practice.
Project overview and context: About the project
Date: July 18, 2019
Location: Theater at New Museum, New York City
This workshop performance introduced many of the questions that would continue through the A.I. Anne project: shared authorship, machine listening, and creative production between humans and technology. It opened with Mary Esther Carter duetting with A.I. Anne, trained on Mary’s voice.
Date: July 30, 2020
Location: Live-streamed presentation by Fridman Gallery and CT::SWaM under NYC shelter-in-place conditions
Created during the pandemic, this live-streamed performance expanded the project into a remote, hybrid format. I used my own brainwaves to control a drum set, while A.I. Anne functioned as a machine-learning entity I created and trained on Mary Esther Carter’s voice.
Date: October 31, 2023
Location: ECOSOC Chamber, United Nations Headquarters, New York City
Presented at the United Nations, this performance was built around texts on care and support. Combining human and technological improvisation, vocalization, movement, and storytelling, it placed A.I. Anne within a broader conversation about inclusion, authenticity, and systems of care.
Date: June 26, 2024
Location: Galerie Analix Forever, Geneva, Switzerland
This performance focused on the inclusion of absent and neurodiverse voices in AI. A central duet between soprano Ileana Munoz and A.I. Anne highlighted the project’s interest in hybrid vocal presence and creative exchange between human and machine.
Date: September 28–29, 2024
Location: NYU Tandon @ The Yard, Brooklyn, NY
This presentation extended the project’s exploration of expression beyond spoken language. Through human and technological improvisation and vocalization, it developed A.I. Anne as a performance language centered on nonverbal storytelling and neurodiverse inclusion in AI. T
Date: April 11, 2025
Location: Jeu de Paume, Paris
Presented at Jeu de Paume, this performance framed A.I. Anne as a wordless storyteller. Using human and technological improvisation and vocalization, it distilled the project’s core concerns into a spare, expressive work advocating for neurodiversity in AI.
Mathematics and music are handled by similar regions in our brains; and it is no serendipity that Janet Biggs’ music plays an overwhelming role in awakening our subjectivity and bridging the gap between human and machine, between creativity and control, strength and frailty, and between our infinitesimal position in the universe and the heroic paths individuals may take.
This work featured Jason Barnes’ drumming arm.
My first collaboration with Janet, with Shimon the robot as the film composer. Tech details available here.
Shown as part of Like Walking on Mars, Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos, Tenerife, Canary Islands.