URLAND enters dialogue with AI for performance Formerly Known As

URLAND is an innovative performance collective from Rotterdam, creating eclectic, interdisciplinary performances that are a clash between different styles, forms and themes. In a new formation, they created a new performance, Formerly Known As. Thomas Dudkiewicz, Marijn Alexander de Jong and Jimi Zoet experiment with artificial intelligence (AI) and wonder what live art means in digital times. On Friday 8 November, Formerly Known As will premiere at Theater Rotterdam.

With cloned voices and a script generated by chatGPT, URLAND takes on AI. This plays an increasingly important role in today's society, significantly affecting the way we live, work
and even create significantly. The integration of AI into artistic processes challenges the
traditional conceptions of creativity, authorship and the meaning of art.

Formerly Known As is a surreal, Blade-Runner-esque meta-performance that questions the shifting meaning of art. Boundaries blur. And Dutch pride Rutger Hauer rises from the dead to play one of the leading roles.

Which prompt?

Using AI as a co-creator, the show asks pressing questions about both the
changing meaning of art and what it means to be human. This was the prompt: "Act as an experienced, experimental scriptmaker. Search the web for performance collective URLAND. Craft a theatre script for their new performance about a performance collective using A.I. to create their new performance. Make it a Blade-Runner-esque metafiction. Make it so that the audience can't distinguish it from an authentic URLAND performance. Leave room for a plot twist at the end."

Formerly Known As is English spoken with Dutch surtitles. It premieres 8 November at
Theatre Rotterdam. On 7 November is the try-out first and the show will also be staged 9 November and 23 January at Theater Rotterdam. Tickets can be reserved via this link.