A Cyborg's Mirror: Bodies in Hyperreality
A Cyborg's Mirror: Bodies in Hyperreality (2024-) is a commissioned work for Safety Third Productions, co-directed by Katherine Helen Fisher and Shimmy Boyle.
As a creative technologist, I co-designed and developed this real-time, AI-driven interactive performance system using TouchDesigner alongside AI tools such as Stream Diffusion-TD by DotSimulate, Mediapipe from Google, and Voice Clone from ElevenLabs. This interface, along with its performance, has been featured in the "First Draft" event by Human Resources (LA), the "(Machine) Learning to Be" workshop hosted by the IGNITE series of Brown Arts, the "Future Stages" event at NYU, "Never Stand Still' hosted by Jacob’s Pillow, Movement Lab at Barnard, and upcoming at "Hyperreal Futures: Choreographing the Algorithmic Body" exhibition at the new Doris Duke Theater at Jacob’s Pillow.
Description:
With the rise of large language models and AI imaging technologies, especially recent advancements in hyperrealistic avatar creation and image transposition, these technologies are reshaping how we perceive and represent ourselves in digital spaces. A Cyborg's Mirror: Bodies in Hyperreality examines these tensions through a real-time interactive performance system. The work transforms the conventional one-way relationship between viewer and performer into a technologically mediated dialogue, exploring themes of embodiment, control, and expression through a cyborg feminist lens.
The work presents two virtual "mirrors" - one presenting a generative AI interpretation of the performer's image based on the audience's live inputs and one presenting the performer's image with only the skin of their body morphing with the AI-generated visual. This technological framework creates a dynamic feedback loop: as audience members submit text prompts through their mobile devices, they actively participate in reshaping and redefining the performer's digital representation. The performers then respond physically to these evolving visualizations, establishing a real-time scoring system that guides choreographic choices while leaving space for improvisation. Through this process, the performers, audience, and AI system collectively shape the emergence of movement and meaning.
Building on this technological infrastructure, and drawing from feminist performance art traditions and cyborg feminist theory, this piece explores the complex relationship between power and autonomy in the digital age. Female-identified performers navigate two forms of influence: the AI's machine learning gaze - which carries with it embedded biases - and the real-time desires of audience members expressed through their prompts. Yet rather than being simply subjected to these forces, the performers wield "soft power" - transforming technological constraints into opportunities for embodied agency and sensual self-expression. The performance itself becomes a mirror, reflecting how media and technology can both limit and liberate our expressions of identity. Through this lens, the work invites audiences to reconsider their digital identities not as fixed algorithms but as fluid spaces where submission and autonomy coexist. This reframing opens possibilities for resilient self-expression and collective reimagining of power dynamics in our technology-mediated world.
Overview of System Workflow:
Photos:
Credits:
- Creative Direction: Katherine Helen Fisher and Shimmy Boyle with Safety Third
- Performers: Jae Neal and Katherine Helen Fisher
- Creative Technologists: Mingyong Cheng and Shimmy Boyle
- Score: Joshua Kadish
- Visual Décor: C. Finley
- Creative Consulting: August Henderson, Uma Shannon
- Photo Credit: Anastasia Velicescu
- Video Sizzle: Adapted from the original version edited by Katherine Helen Fisher and Shimmy Boyle of Safety Third Productions.
- Developed in conjunction with the Data Fluencies Theater project with support from the Brown Ignite Series