Mute

AI in Live Performance

Mute is a live performance in which the actor, dancer, musicians, and AI poet improvised with each other in real time.
A custom AI system was built to read the dance motion of the dancer and ‘translate’ them into words with the pre-trained dance language model and then poems are written and read out based on the words from the dance motion in real time so that the actor can respond to the dancer by words. AI helps the exchange of messages in different media in this show. 

Mute是一個由舞者，演員，音樂家與人工智能詩人一起即興演出的藝術實驗項目。
在這個實驗項目中，人工智能被引入，用來訓練舞蹈語言模型與詩歌模型。表演過程中，人工智能作爲其中一個故事角色，將不同的媒介串聯起來，通過捕捉舞者的舞蹈動作并且將其”翻譯“成爲文字，繼而根據這些舞蹈文字來作詩，用詩句與演員溝通。

 

  •  Dance Language ‘Translator’ AI: LSTM is used here to learn the 90-frame dance motion sequences. After it gets trained,  the AI has the ability to look for the similarity of the dance moves in real-time to the learned ones and then output the words labeled with this dance motion sequence.
  • AI Poet: In this part, an AI poet is trained to write poems with the given words in Charles Bukowski’s writing style.
  • AI Voice cloner: It learns the voice of Charles Bukowski and is able to read the real-time generated poems out during the show so that the actor can respond to the poems, like talking with Charles Bukowski.
  • AI舞蹈語言翻譯員：利用LSTM來學習一系列90幀的舞蹈動作序列，訓練後AI能夠實時地尋找舞蹈動作與數據庫中舞蹈動作的相似性並找到該舞蹈動作對應的標簽
  • AI詩人：查爾斯布考斯基的詩集被作爲訓練集，訓練後能夠根據給定的關鍵詞來作出查爾斯布考斯基寫作風格的詩歌
  • AI聲音克隆: 查爾斯布考斯基的聲音作爲訓練樣本被學習，在演出中，當AI詩歌生成後，它能夠用查爾斯的聲音將其讀出
The poems written by the Charles Bukowski AI poet in real-time in the performance:
在演出中人工智能詩人查爾斯布考斯基實時作的詩歌：

i was a little lonely,
i was just a speck of dust,
wandering through the woods,
looking at the lonely faces of this world,
how would you call it?
it was not a good day for me,
i truly felt it,
like a face without a shape,
it had no shape

我有點孤獨，
我只是一粒塵埃
漫步穿過樹林，
看著這個世界孤獨的面孔，
你會怎麼稱呼它？
這對我來說不是美好的一天
我真切地感受到了，
就像一張沒有形狀的臉，
它沒有形狀

i left for a while,
my spirit flowed to the window,
looking at the galaxy,
one star at a time,
i silently thought,
missing my distant hometown,
wars spreading,
absurdity combined with hatred.

我離開了一段時間
我的靈魂流向窗外，
眺望銀河，
一次一顆星星，
我默默地想，
想念遙遠的故鄉，
戰爭蔓延，
荒謬與仇恨結合在一起。

i would like to see you at this dark time
my love for you is nothing
i am nothing either
what can i be?
let me put on beautiful clothes and nag at you for a few words
let me explain you to
them:
the beauty of it all
I am nothing

我想在這個黑暗的時刻見到你
我對你的愛不算什麼
我也什麼都不是
我能成為什麼？
讓我穿上漂亮的衣服對你嘮叨幾句
讓我向你解釋一下
他們：
這一切的美麗
我什麼都不是

i hate the thought of death,
why couldn’t i be with you,
to spend our lives together,
we would have seen every corner of the world,
said “i love you” every moment,
there will always be a path for me,
i want to hold you now,
preaching to you,
i understand, but you don’t,
you say you don’t want me,
i am forgotten,
i am erased,
reduced to ashes,
i burn,
even if i’m so lost

我討厭死亡的想法
為什麼我不能和你在一起
一起度過我們的一生，
我們會看到世界的每一個角落，
每時每刻都說“我愛你”
總會有一條路適合我
我現在就想抱著你
向你傳教，
我明白，但你不明白
你說你不想要我
我被遺忘了，
我被抹去了，
化為灰燼，
我消耗，
即使我如此迷失

i don’t want anybody seeing
me,
i am just a speck of dust,
rust,
and when i do
something,
i realize that there is a limit to what can be done,
but i don’t give enough attention,
i take too long,
and then i burn
the earth will burn
without any indication,
i understand,
i have no care,
not enough attention.

我不想讓任何人看到
我，
我只是一粒塵埃
銹，
當我這樣做時
某物，
我意識到能做的事情是有限的
但我沒有給予足夠的重視，
我花了太長時間，
然後我燃燒
地球將會燃燒
沒有任何跡象表明，
我明白，
我不在乎，
不夠重視。

it’s there
from the beginning,
to the middle, to the
end,
there from light to darkness,
there through the shadow of this world,
there is nothing here
for death to
take
away,
it’s there because
it’s there because
it’s there
and when you’re alone with death,
you can’t help
dying.

在那
從開始、到中間、到最後
結尾，
那裡從光明到黑暗，
透過這個世界的陰影，
這裡沒有什麼可以讓死亡
带走
離開，
它在那裡，因為它在那裡，因為它在那裡
當你獨自面對死亡時，
你無能為力
快死了。

Video is coming soon..

Project Producer:  Anita Lam @ The Collective
Producer: Michael Lee
Artistic Director:  Wilfred Wong
Creative Technologist:  Yoki Yao @ The Collective
Scriptwriter / Performer: Anson Chan
Choreographer / Performer: Alice Ma
Concept / Composer / Music Director / Live Music:  Edmund Leung @ The Interzone Collective
Live Music: The Interzone Collective