Spike Jonze Meets Shakespeare – Artificial Intelligence and Posthumanism

The hereby study aims to answer several questions regarding the impact Artificial Intelligence has had on our lives and on our art, especially on the performing arts, and particularly on theatre and cinema. In order to gauge and assess the importance of AI, both as a means of creating works of art and as a theme they trackle, I draw a parallel between Spike Jonze’s film, “Her” (2013), and Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2016 production of “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare, directed by Gregory Doran. While this particular production of Shakespeare’s play is a high-quality illustration of how Artificial Intelligence can enhance a theatre performance, in Spike Jonze’s film one can find AI as a theme, character and social issue. Besides being a state-of-the-art work, “Her” raises a question rarely addressed without bias, bigotry or militantism: a human’s warmth or a machine’s intelligence? Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “The Tempest” answers: ’Both’. Director Gregory Doran worked with Imaginarium and Intel to create scenes where actors and holograms interact in a three-dimensional immersive experience, a feat which could not have been achieved without Artificial Intelligence. The hereby essay also tries to answer other questions, such as: Does the use of AI technology improve the spectator’s aesthetic experience, or is it rather an encumbering factor? And if so, why? Are we heading towards the posthuman age? And last, but not least, what implications does the increasing use of AI in the performing arts have from an anthropological and sociological point of view?