At your very fingertips right now is a world of endless content. A random website that sits atop my Google search tells me that 1,099 posts are made per second online… it sounds about right. But how much of this content is “real” and, perhaps more importantly, what constitutes real? Mark Haslam wanted to deep-dive into this question, creating a real-time show that examines the alternative truths, political division, AI, scams, conspiracy theories, and distortions of reality that define our contemporary digital life. FAKE, coming to the Rechabite’s Goodwill Club from May 23-25, uses real-time AI generation and audience submissions to capture what the world is seeing and believing at that very moment. Mark sits at the centre of this performance as a performer, director, designer, and curator, developing a show which is unique every single time its performed. He spoke to Magazine 6000, ahead of FAKE’s upcoming season, giving us an insight into the work’s origins and how it combines our digital and physical realities.
Where did the journey with this production start for you? Did you begin with the idea of examining what the label of something being ‘Fake’ means in our digital world? Or did inspiration come from elsewhere?
So it actually began a few years ago with an observation on how fragile democracy can look when subjected to a relentless attack on truth. I started a deep dive into some odd (dark!) corners of the internet and found not only a bunch of seething resentment, but also a lot of desperate people just trying to find someone to connect with. For me that was the place to start, as in those environments what is real is what someone else is willing to believe. This is true throughout history of course, but really, the scale and speed we’re seeing it at now (and the casualisation of its effects) is at a brand-new level thanks to the digital age. So I thought I’d make a show about that!
FAKE. Photography by Chris Symes.
What was the process like devising FAKE? And what did it take to get the work to its current state?
All my work begins with a long, eclectic gathering of snippets of information, which then forms into a broad framework of ideas that I bring into the room and discuss with my team. It’s often some big, dense concepts, and so really the process is trying to find approaches that can present them in an engaging way. Most of these end up being some hybrid of performance and technology. Getting it to where it is today is some pretty detailed and intricate technical work, plenty of good coffee and a truck load of good humour.
Your practice is a hybrid of technical production, design, direction, and performance. How do you develop these elements when you’re working on a new project? Do you consider them simultaneously?
Absolutely. I’ve long been of the mindset that it’s only by considering all elements that you can create a truly unified, effective performance. Adding in technical production in the week before you open seems mad to me – and seriously limiting to the potential of what it can create. Building works from the ground up with all the elements in the room and contributing is the only way I can work.
Artistic Director Mark Haslam.
For this project you’ve assembled some of WA’s leading artists. What can you tell us about the team you’ve formed and how you’re working together to realise this work?
Sure! So for this one I was lucky to get a bunch of amazing artists from dance, theatre and technical arts backgrounds. The majority are mid-career with their own history of Festival shows as lead creatives. I’m really lucky they came on the ride with me! Even though we’ve stripped away a range of the physical performance in favour of them appearing through the content and screens, their unique takes on performance really bring home for me the eclecticism and chaos of the show. The last development at PICA really focused on bringing the show (and all the computers) together to create a framework robust enough to handle the changes every night, which are considerable.
In the show you use real-time AI generation and live web scrapes from several websites and platforms. How do you direct the performers to respond to this live content?
In this work the audience form a key role in the development of the prompts for the AI generation. The digital content that flows into the space is often tailored by their submissions, so they tend to respond with surprise and organic fascination, without much prompting from me!
Because of this live content and the response it garners from the performers and audience, the show is a completely unique experience every time. What’s the experience like for you as director, seeing the work take on a new life each time it’s performed?
So I sit in the middle of the space as a performer, steering and shaping the chaos as it comes down. It’s a pretty hectic experience – there’s a lot going on and making it all flow smoothly is quite the ride! For me it’s actually more about context than the content itself. Content is everywhere, getting constantly regurgitated (particularly by AI) so in the end I’m more interested in what the reactions are to the contexts I’m presenting the content in, which has proven to be as diverse as I would have hoped!
FAKE. Photography by Chris Symes.
You’re using The Rechabite’s Goodwill Club as the show’s venue. How does this performance space lend itself to this work?
It’s become essential. It’s a pretty small space to host a work with this much video, so we’ve really had to adapt to what is possible to present and still have people be able to see! We’ve also really lent heavily into the club vibe, so there’s loads of driving beats as well as moments of sensory overload just like you’d get at a usual club night. It’s been pretty fun.
You describe the use of the word fake as a label that’s weaponised or used as a defence, particularly in response to digital content. What is the danger of using this word/label?
For me it’s part of the degradation of useful debate in society. It’s a symptom of the echo chambers of social media and the reduction of ideas into binaries – you’re either for an idea or against an idea, which eliminates all the nuance and greys that make life interesting and help us develop as an ununified, but cohesive social whole. I’m not sure I believe that anything is completely true or completely false anymore.
FAKE. Photography by Chris Symes.
How do you see society evolving alongside the development of AI? Will our perception of reality change even further?
Oh I hope so! Reality has always been changing, and perceptions have always been diverse – there’s just never been quite so much democratisation in whose perceptions you can access. I see AI as I see all the technologies before it – something that was developed by humans to help ease human existence or build human connections (while being monetised). I do feel we’re on the brink of the next industrial revolution, but I also think we’re still going to be struggling along trying to find our way for a while yet.
What conversations do you hope this show will spark for its audiences?
I’m mainly interested in showing people a world outside of a curated algorithm, one where the content is raw and unfiltered and shows what the world really is dreaming up right now. Any conversation is good – even if the initial one is “hang on – what the f*ck did I just see?”.
FAKE is presented by kdmindindustries and is on from May 23-25 at Goodwill Club.