Sponsored by Nebraska Public Media, and hosted at the Sheldon Museum of Art, Ash Eliza Smith, Sam Bendix, Reid Brockmeier and I premiered a new AI theater performance on January 23rd, 2025. This public event supported the launch of the Ken Burns documentary on Leonardo DaVinci.
It dovetailed with a half day workshop with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, working through the fundamentals of co-creation with generative AI—with contents and performers participating in the evening performance.
Workshop + Performance
January 23, 2025
• Afternoon Workshop: A participatory session on co-creating with generative AI, led by Smith, Twomey, and their team, culminating in a collaboratively written radio play.
• Evening Performance: A live theater and sound experience performed with OLLI members, featuring excerpts from the PBS Leonardo da Vinci documentary and a conversation about the creative process.
The project features binaural and spatial audio, live visuals, and participatory storytelling. Future iterations may explore partnerships with bird experts such as Dai Shizuki and Tom Gannon (Birding While Indian) and Adam Larios, integrating migration patterns , bird calls, and fluid dynamics to deepen the ecological entanglements.
Creative Team
Leads
Ash Eliza Smith – Speculative Devices Lab, UNL
Robert Twomey – Machine Cohabitation Lab, UC San Diego
Contributors
Reid Brockmeier
Sam Bendix
Olli Jenkins
Elaina Franzen
Lincoln Graham
Wyatt Debben
Hannah Rommell
Jim Schroeder
Marina Kushner
Hank Ball
With special thanks to the workshop participants from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNL
Documentation
>>> tune in live radio-play.net/davinci <<<
More Information:
- Ken Burns Leonardo Da Vinci https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/leonardo-da-vinci/
- Sheldon Museum of Art https://sheldonartmuseum.org/
- Nebraska Public Media Event – https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/watch/community-engagement/leonardo-da-vinci/
- Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln https://olli.unl.edu/