Farn Kollektiv (De): Imagine – Hellos and Goodbyes

What happens when a human enters into a dialogue with an artificial intelligence on stage?

A unique production at the border of concert, installation and performance.

Performer Daniel Nerlich prepares his farewell concert and discusses with the chatbot Chatsy. Scenes from his life flash in the background. He sings about love and friendship, about loss and loneliness. The ordered universe of one life becomes a multiverse of possible lives that exist in parallel.

Daniel Nerlich provided his biography as the basis for the production, which became the source material for ever new rewrites of the story using machine learning systems. To create an image or video, the /imagine command is used in this system. Seemingly intelligent systems thus “dream up” mental images from textual commands – prompts. In cooperation with technology, alternative life paths and memories are created, generating ever new narratives of the life story.

Chatbot responses are always generated in real time. Each performance is unpredictable for the audience and the performer.

performers: Daniel Nerlich and chatbot Chatsy
directors: Tom Schneider & Tobias Staab (FARN. Kollektiv)
Music and song lyrics by Daniel Nerlich
scenography: Nadja Sofie Eller
costumes: Andrijana Trpković
3D design and AI programming: Warja Rybakova
video prompts: Nadja Sofie Eller & Tobias Staab

Supported by:

Fonds Darstellenden Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg (LaFT BW) Cultural Office of the City of Freiburg im Breisgau.