01/19/2025
I am inspired to create/ instigate a theater project that will ‘go meta on language’ (as Bonnitta Roy, PopUp School, implored us, her students; see below), specifically to help us better understand language - generally and as it relates to AI and LLMs (large language models) - as well as technological advances throughout history, perhaps.
This project is in its infancy and I wanted to share it with you in case it sparks something in you. I am setting it up to be a collaborative effort, though to what degree is yet to be seen.
For now, I am conceptualizing it like this: write and collect mini-plays (5 - 15 minutes long?) about language (or related technologies) - more specifically, about instances where language has misled us, personally or societally, or acts in a way that surprises us or confuses us, or perhaps dumbs us down or creates conformity or standardization to our detriment.
I plan to write at least one mini play and also hope to get community members to write and/ or perform at a showcase to take place at our local Theater on Cedar in the Woods, date tbd.
Here are 3 examples that I am contemplating:
1) a personal experience in which I was caretaking for an elderly woman inside a nursing home, where the clients, at their communal meals, had some conversational exchanges that made no sense contextually but seemed to make sense for them on a deeply habitual level.
2) standardized education’s instruction that gravity is a force (it isn’t) and how Einstein came to understand that it wasn’t (have to research this more to make sure my conceptualization is and/ or remains accurate)
3) how theater was usurped by the powerful, back in the day, to reach the masses and downplay the power of emotions, (as described by Eleanor Robinson of Substack)
there are so many more!
Relatedly, Bonnitta Roy, teacher at the PopUp School, is doing a crash course on AI, which is the inspiration for this project. I have watched (heard) 3 of the 5 Zoom sessions and they have been really helpful for me gaining a better grasp of what AI is/ does/ will likely do. I would gladly rewatch them with anyone who might be interested. Let me know if you’d like more info on the course.
Please let me know if you are interested in either/ both the AI course watch party or in writing a play, performing, or exploring or sharing with me a story that ‘goes meta on language’; and also, possibly, in helping me develop language around this project to entice the broader community to participate, including younger generations.
Thank you!
