I would like to use this post to reflect on this week’s assignments and progress, as well as lay out the plan for next steps.

Dream Review

“When was the last time you were alone with yourself? Truly alone? No checking your phone on the toilet. No urge to read your email or pass the empty time with a podcast. No wondering which moments should be the next to be documented. When was the last time you ate a blueberry without thinking about anything else but the experience of tasting that blueberry?”

These questions center us, the audience, at the very beginning of Michael Morran’s [insert not yet decided-upon performance title here], a compilation of micro-plays in the style of Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information, that paint a hilariously bleak picture of post-pandemic life. I myself welcomed several creature comforts into my home during the pandemic (most beloved of which is my Hamilton Beach smart coffee maker), but the setting of Morran’s [insert not yet decided-upon performance title] is on another level; It is the utopia of Amazon IoT executives who, in no uncertain terms, have made it their mission to “have Alexa everywhere.” Morran puts devices at the forefront of the conversation with each play investigating the implications of constant connectivity. 

Self-deprecating, silly, and surprisingly vulnerable, Morran’s performance is based upon the prediction that “those of us who spent an average of 12 hours on screens during the pandemic will never be able to just ‘go back to normal.’” In some instances, this is not entirely a bad thing; While “A Conversation with Grandma” is awkward over Alexa, it speaks to the ability to persist through tech issues and emotionally connect with loved ones far away. However, Morran largely portrays the utter silliness and uneven trade-offs made when we incorporate smart technology into our private lives. While it is easy to laugh at his clownish attempt to “save an average of 25% per month on insurance” by performing a frantic, ‘perfect’ morning routine for his Amazon smart camera, my heart broke when a pencil accidentally slipped to the floor and the brimming smile changed to a horrified recognition of failure. Morran isn’t asking to go back to ‘simpler times,’ but rather to imagine a future where constant posturing and lack of privacy aren’t the most convenient modes of operation.

[insert not yet decided-upon performance title here]’s plays flow seamlessly. Morran’s physicality, energy, and fun allow his characters to disarm and reach us when things fall apart. While it is easy to get carried away with spectacular technology on the stage, the devices in this work feel perfectly integrated. Both hilarious and haunting, [insert not yet decided-upon performance title here] has earned a spot among those theatre pieces that truly understand the connected world, advancing the field of theatre to more precisely reflect many people’s everyday lives.

***I feel like this week I have committed more to the idea of this being a performance rather than a tool. After reading Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information, I was inspired to pursue the micro-play format moving forward as a way to make creative work while developing the technology. What was perhaps so inspiring about the play was the clarity of each play’s thematic gesture. I know there are several topics I want to comment on with smart home technology and using this disconnected approach will allow me to comment on several things without being too worried on weaving them together. Thus, I wrote my dream review as if I had weaved a bunch of micro-plays together.***

Mood Board

[Photo Sources: Ballyturk by Enda Walsh, Breakfast of Champions illustrations by Kurt Vonnegut, Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, The Buoy by Meredith Morran, Belleville by Amy Herzog. Quotes: “Transforming Smart Vehicles and Smart Homes into Private Diagnostic Spaces” by Thomas M. Deserno, “Scales for measuring Internet Addiction in Covid-19 times” by Camino López García et al.]

Article Response

“Transforming Smart Vehicles and Smart Homes into Private Diagnostic Spaces” by Thomas M. Deserno

This article imagines possible use cases for connected devices in both the home and vehicles, which could provide constant insight into a patient’s biometrics to predict potential health complications. This article reminded me of a story I heard recently on the ability of smart watches to predict if someone has Covid-19 before it is detectable by PCR tests. In both cases, simple heart rate data compared with that of previous patients can be used to predict certain diagnoses. In the style of the minority report, I think this is an incredibly dangerous and slippery slope to go down. All papers I have read on this subject use the elderly to justify the existence of this kind of surveillance. In this paper, the author acknowledges that this is an emerging field that will continue to evolve as machine learning becomes faster and more complex. He acknowledges that the only current barrier is “data to train artificial intelligence,” hinting that there is the potential for exponential growth as more people adopt these use cases. What I found so disturbing is that the technology is not even very advanced. From simple heart monitoring sensors they can determine the likelihood of you having a stroke. I think that this technology will first be adopted in the healthcare industry and slowly move outward to insurance companies where substantial discounts will be offered for behavioral patterns that signify wellness/safety. There are an infinite amount of abstractions for this data to apply to.

50 Days of Making Prototype

I will be working on this this afternoon and updating the post with more details…