• November 10, 2023
• Factory 163
• Stratford, Ontario

“Neural Ballet” is a live dance presentation enriched with AI-generated visuals, collaboratively created and performed by professional ballet dancer and award-winning choreographer Irina Lerman, along with software artist Ryan Kelln. It is part of the Provocation Ideas Festival and co-presented by SpringWorks.

This distinctive show weaves a mesmerizing tapestry that includes both neoclassical masterpieces and original contemporary works, specifically crafted for this event. These pieces explore the fascinating intersection of physical artistry and the data streams that pulse through the emerging artificial intelligences redefining artistic boundaries. Venturing into the nuances of intelligence, “Neural Ballet” poses the compelling question: How can movements and gestures, so deeply human, be captured, interpreted, and echoed by the realm of artificial intelligence? Join us for an exploration that dances at the intersection of tradition and innovation, encapsulating the dynamic dialogue between dance and data.

The Transmigrations live music concert was performed in Toronto on June 9, 2023 at the Toronto Reference Library and November 17, 2023 at Factory 163 in Stratford.

This concert, a collaboration between Dhaivat Jani and Ryan Kelln, is part of the Provocation Ideas Festival, and explores the history of the technological transformation of modern society, the nature of intelligence, and the recent revolution in generative AI tools.

It includes an integrated discussion about the practice of using these tools and how increasingly intelligent and accessible tools will shape economics, politics, and culture.

The Sound Escapes concert is a collaboration with Spectrum Music released on July 30, 2021 as a online concert.

Concert streamed on twitch on July 30th at 8pm ET. It is now available on youtube.

Watch the full concert here.

Inspired by the wild and uninhibited beauty of nature, it is a collaboration of 6 emerging composers, an amazing jazz trio and myself. For each piece I have created accompanying visuals; a music video crafted from found footage, local landscapes and generated by machine learning / artificial intelligence, all made with open source software. The concert speaks to a love of nature and the technological revolution that is ahead for humanity. While seemingly at odds, I hope that the alien lens of machine learning provides a new perspective on the wonders of everything non-human and a tool to empower more people to make art. Art that can help us see the beauty that is rapidly disintegrating around us.

I am currently looking for collaborators for a machine learning and art project. Would you like to join me? Continue reading below!

The Coding Chaos concert was a collaboration with Spectrum Music performed on May 2, 2019 at The Tell in Toronto, Canada.

Part of Spectrum’s 2019 concert series featuring the Jungian archetypes, this concert represented The Creator, as described by them:

Where will we be when what we create can create us? Technology continues to grow at an exponential rate as we discover new ways to improve our everyday lives - but at what point do we lose ourselves to a technology advanced far beyond our control? In a digital world where technology constantly blurs the lines between fact and fabrication, the Spectrum composers probe the possibility of losing our sense of identity and grasp on reality - or will technology give us room to grow?

In June 2015, I was honoured to work with the Univox Choir that I’ve been singing with for over 10 years. Instead of the usual musician guest artist who performs with the choir, I created and directed a concert about the near future. I was incredibly humbled by and proud of all the extra effort that the choir put into this concert: from arranging music, finding images online, creating music videos to accompany the pieces, and helping out in so many ways this was a hugely collaborative piece. You will eventually be able to see the results of this at the Creo Animam website.

This page documents some of the research and notes for that concert that I created and shared with the choir while I was developing the concert. The concept for the concert investigates the near future, one where the pace of change has continued to accelerate, everything digital is free, in price and liberty, everything you want to track is recorded, and personal and collective power is only exceeded by the new forms life we have dreamed into the world around us.

What is our destiny when we have created beings that surpass us in every way?