Upload
Role
Visual artist & coder
Duration
60’30
Date
March, 2021
A multimedia opera
Upload is an opera by Michel van der Aa that explores the possibility of attaining eternal life by uploading a digital version of ourselves, and investigates what this means for our ‘humanness’, our identity, and our relationships with others. What if our minds could live forever? Recent advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience mean that we will soon be able to map our memories and experiences and to use these data to build a digital consciousness identical to our own. These ‘whole brain emulations’ will be able to carry on indefinitely after we die, as a kind of virtual resurrection. But where do our identities reside? In our minds, our bodies, or our relationships? And to what extent do the data of our lives determine our fate? Upload will explore these ancient philosophical questions against the backdrop of present-day and near-future technologies.
In collaboration with Michel van der Aa
Dutch composer Michel van der Aa invited me to create a real-time visuals system, based on on-stage motion capture of the lead singer (Roderick Williams), via an array of Kinect Azure. I developed several custom made tools for the purpose, which are now open-source.
