Paradise

Nature only exists inside the machine now. Step in and look for it.

PARADISE is an experimental stage performance in which two researchers follow an AI guide through ecosystems that exist only as data. Human actors, living plants, and AI-generated imagery share the same stage.

The AI character runs inside TouchDesigner as a self-contained actor component that handles calls to the backend. Two audio inputs from the actors on stage, together with some fast speech-to-text handling made it possiable to have a three way conversation. This ment that the actors on stage could have a conversation between the two of them, but the AI-actor could then jump into the scene when it saw an option to do so.

A StreamDiffusion pipeline running locally processes the live stage video feed frame by frame, transforming it in real time as the performance progresses. The diffusion output was sent over NDI to Unity and integrated into the 3D stage rendering.

OSC calls to and from QLab handles theatrical sound and video cuing, synchronising the AI’s behaviour with the live performance arc.

PARADISE played at Aveny-T, Copenhagen, September 2025.

The production was made possible thanks to the support From The Danish Arts Foundation, Hoffmanns & Husmans Fond, Knud Højgårds Fond, Åge And Johanne Luise Hansen’s Foundation.