You Are BUTIFL / XRE (Extended Reality Ensemble) (US), Photo: XRE

You Are BUTIFL

Ars Electronica Garden New York: XRE (Extended Reality Ensemble) (US)

Tackling AI fears through interactive play

The Extended Reality Ensemble (XRE) specializes in hybridizing traditional arts with technology, including artificial intelligence (AI). But with the increased use of AI left unchecked, fears are spreading surrounding disinformation, discrimination and racism, just to name a few.

XRE presents You Are BUTIFL, to tackle the conversation surrounding these fears and reflect on how we must flow with the times, whilst also pause to prevent collective pain and find new solutions.

You Are BUTIFL is designed as an interactive game. The premise is dystopian: Aurorin is a land of harmony, symmetry and beauty. The Big Sister Avatar is their leader. Aurorian psychology states that beauty is not subjective, rather a scientific phenomenon consistent in optical creatures favoring symmetrical adaptation. To this end, audience members have to undergo a seven-stage conversion therapy treatment. The performers act as symmetry-obsessed beauty officers, guiding the audience through the experience. By chatting live with Dream AI, audience members explore their very own data: Who owns the truth and has the power to define “beauty”? Why do visual AI programs generate specific bodies when asked to represent the beautiful human? The audience is required to rectify the misunderstanding between beauty and ugliness, to reveal the diverse multiplicity of humans and anarchize the western bias of beauty.

  • You Are BUTIFL: Tackling AI fears through interactive play

    You Are BUTIFL: Tackling AI fears through interactive play

    Clara Francesca (AU/IT), Anne Wichmann aka She’s Excited! (DE), Brittany Kurtinecz (US), Whitt Sellers (US)

    XRE presents You Are BUTIFL, tackling the conversation surrounding AI fears and reflect on how we must flow with the times, whilst also commune, pausing to prevent collective pain. The show combines performance art with a state-of-the-art multimedia installation under the influence of OpenAI ChatGPT and Wombo Dream AI.

  • You Are BUTIFL

    You Are BUTIFL

    Anne Wichmann aka She’s Excited! (DE), Clara Francesca (AU/IT), Brittany Kurtinecz (US), Whitt Sellers (US)

    You Are BUTIFL combines performance art with a state-of-the-art multimedia installation under the influence of AI, representing our (biased, and heavily Western-Colonizer-influenced) collective consciousness.

About

The Extended Reality Ensemble (XRE) extends realities as a multi-national XR artist-tech collective and curatorial team. The ensemble of international interdisciplinary creators and curators combines artistry & technology to raise social awareness and uplift egalitarianism. XRE aims to work ethically, conscionably, kindly, diligently, efficiently, professionally and with a focus on generating new works, under the lens of a non-hierarchical, traditionally collaborative, equitable structure.

Credits

You Are BUTIFL was created by Anne Wichmann aka She’s Excited! and Clara Francesca. It was realized with Brittany Kurtinecz (avatars and visual design) and Whitt Sellers (particle avatar and XR technology).