Theatres of Artificial Intelligence and the Overlooked Performances of Computing

The term performance is used liberally in the computing and artificial intelligence (AI) literature, yet it is frequently deemed of a different order to the performances studied by theatre and performance studies and is therefore overlooked. This essay engages with these overlooked performances by considering three technological contexts that prompted creators and critics of computing to reach for the term: 1) Alan Turing's invention of the universal computing machine, where "machines perform computers"; 2) Alan Kay's invention of software as a meta-medium where "software performs media"; and 3) Brenda Laurel's articulation of computers as theatre where "machines, computers, software and humans collaborate to perform interfaces." These examples establish a milieu of performance within which AI is staged. Grounded within the author's theatre practice employing mobile computing in site-responsive performance, the essay draws on observation of audiences' capacity to overlook their own participation in algorithmic rituals that perpetuate both the event and its "artificial," virtual characters. This prompts a dialogue with Lucy Suchman on the difference between plans and their execution as "situated actions," and with Wendy Chun on the performance ontology of habit in new media, AI, machine learning, and "big data." The essay provides entry points for discussing computing and AI in and as performance, and considers the differences that theatre and performance can make to understandings of computing and AI in practice and theory.