What if we were not alone in the universe?

We can talk about a strange foreign body with this suggestion If you ever listened to us by Maxime Carboneau and Lawrence Dauphines at Denis Pelletier’s theater to spin the metaphor.

However, the idea is simple, because the creators based their thinking on the idea of ​​​​NASA in the 1970s to send into space, accompanied by a space probe, a disk called the Golden Record, which would contain a sample of our civilization’s memory to attract the attention of potential other spirits who could thus if they became aware For the content of this virtual memory of what may or may be our earthly civilizations. And if we as spectators are to leave a mark like this, what shall we choose as sound and iconic testimonies so that we may remember them?

“That is why we ask those who come to see the show to start by going to the theater’s website and suggesting songs, photos and even videos that they would like to have on this disc,” Maxime Carboneau explains in an interview, and every evening, you will use these different contents to integrate them into the offer “. A form of participation and interaction with the audience. As we know, Maxime Carboneau and Lawrence Dauphines have for several years been interested in new technologies and what they bring to communication. There’s an app on the site for iPhone, Ipad, and Android that, in the form of a video game, follows Maxime Carbonneau, and serves as an introduction to play. We have created this so that everyone is on an equal footing, and the proposals made by the actors on the stage will be used. But if people don’t do it, it’s not so dramatic, they won’t get lost during the show.

Both wish to incorporate them into theatrical creativity not only for the added aesthetic but also to challenge our thinking about how we use them. As Lawrence Dauphines perfectly confirms: “I, like Maxime, have a fascination with this virtual world and at the same time anxiety. Today we see risks related to what is put on social networks, or even with the sharing of our data that we do not always control and at the same time today we can do without These new technologies, the speed of information and knowledge sharing and we are now seeing advances in artificial intelligence will soon be available to us. We have to think about it, in fact, learning how to use these new tools better by trying to understand them better.”

If we are charming apprentices in this field, it is a good idea to ask ourselves and perhaps improve our way of using them. Already created the two partners siri In 2016. This voice assistant built into our mobile phones interacted on stage with the actors, if you ever listen to us, the audience will be called through the app to the stage. “What has linked us to the golden record is space exploration on the one hand, but the whole question of which memory is engraved in this disc and which can live much longer than the Earth or the sun,” Maxime Carbono continues. It is the only piece of immortality the human race will ever create that will perhaps even speak in our name. after our disappearance.” The question then asked by the two artists is what we would like to pass on to possible eternity. A projection effort asks us to represent a spatio-temporal unknown.

At the end of the interview, I wonder if the two friends actually have an upcoming show about GPT-3. Maxime and Lawrence look at each other in amazement and then smile at me. Yes, it’s on their drawing board and this new app might be on stage for creating scripts. But it’s still too early to talk about it, to go on…

information | If you have ever listened to us by Maxime Carbonneau and Laurence Dauphinais. At the Salle Denise-Pelletier from November 9-25, 2022
www.denise-pelletier.qc.ca

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