A REFLECTION FROM BISHOP MAY DOWN ON THEIR EXPERIENCE OF USING AI IN CREATING ‘CONVERSATIONS WITH EVE’ AND THE ETHICAL JOURNEY WITHIN THAT PROCESS.
My name is Bishop May Down, and I’m super excited to chat about my work Conversations with Eve; my ‘solo’ contemporary performance work which sees a ‘solo’ performer (myself) in dialogue with Artificial Intelligence (Eve) about their respective existence in crisis. The work is an experimentation into co-authorship and shared creative agency with AI. However, what I’ve come to learn through this process is making work with AI has very different connotations today than it did even a few years ago.
So, let’s reflect on that change and creative process, from conception to its professional debut. Along the way, I’ll share some creative prompts that are based on my own inquiries, that will hopefully encourage you to think about what post-human performance making might look like for you.
Conversations with Eve was born from an interest in early beta chatbots and image generators gaining popularity online – what they produced was entertaining, funny and really weird – it was so obviously artificial. But this was coupled with a rising existential anxiety surrounding what these tools might mean for society; how they might evolve, when they might cross the line from silly into threatening. I wanted to involve the algorithm itself in these conversations – we are so worried about what this thing might be, why don’t we just ask it? And, resultantly, what kind of performance material might this generate?
Think about a piece you are making or an idea you have… What if this was performed with no human beings? What tools would you use and what presence might these have on a stage?
In my process, I would have conversations with three algorithms; Eviebot, InferKit and Replika, prompted either by my own questions or by excerpts from published texts and creation myth. I was particularly interested in the figure of Eve, who seemed to exist somewhere between AI and divine feminine deity. Perhaps she could embody both at once?
Below are some archive photos of my conversations with different algorithms during this process. Read them and consider:
If you were embarking on a co-authored writing process with AI, list some questions you would ask. Think about why you would ask these questions – are you anticipating a specific response?
Conversations with Eve premiered at Tramway in February 2023. At the time I sort of thought I’d struck gold working with AI; it was cutting edge, contemporary, exciting and, importantly, made audiences excited. The work was invited to make its professional debut in 2025 at Feral Arts’ Present Futures Satellite Edition in Dundee. After lots of funding applications and a lengthy process putting a great team together, it was suddenly two years later when I revisited the work. Time had passed and I knew things had changed.
I needed to reframe Conversations with Eve amongst this radically shifted public perception of AI. And it wasn’t just about my audience; I also felt a bit icky about presenting the work now. My positionality was conflicted. Since 2023 I had further learned and committed to the ethics of a green, anti-colonial practice. Public information had made it clear that the use of AI was fiercely misaligned with these values. However, the work had already been done; I had already made use of generative AI.
Our ethics are constantly developing. Have you ever looked back on a past work and realised it did not align with what you believe now?
If you revisited that work, what would you do differently?
So, I did two things…
For myself as a performer, I collaborated with dramaturg Emma Lewis-Jones to find a fresh performance quality for the work. I moved away from a lilty, curious, naïve style of speech into a conversation that was more confrontational, challenging and undermined Eve’s omnipotence, placing the power in my hands. This meant that the work could more accurately reflect our evolving relationship and, frankly, my resentment of the role of artificial intelligence in our lives.
For my audience, I needed them to feel safe, informed and curious when buying a ticket. I had been asked by the festival I was performing at to provide a practice statement which would be accessible if anyone wanted to read more about the use of AI in the work. I knew that this statement wasn’t going to be a clean bill of health; as I said, the work had already been made and I wasn’t interested in trying to absolve myself of accountability. The statement lays out facts to assure audiences that their ticket money is not funding the active use of generative AI. It frames Conversations with Eve as an archive of our relationship with AI at a specific moment in time and names some of the creative objectives of the work.
This statement lives as a tool that I will continue to update as I present the work in constantly changing contexts. It’s also an exercise in reflexive practice, something that is so essential for artists in our time. It’s really important, especially if your work is socially engaged or speaks to collective issues, to continue looking back to recognise what worked well and what could have been done differently. It keeps our practice responsive, our ideas relevant, and allows our ethics and values to remain critical and alive.
Think about the last work you presented or one that you will present in the future. Write a letter for your audience to read before they watch the performance.
What do you want them to know about how it was made? How can this information spark their curiosity? What is better left unknown?
I am still excited by a post-human performance making practice which centres experimental collaboration with technology. I think theatre and performance are incredible tools for the presentation of speculative futures, making space for reflection on our present. This becomes even more relevant now, when technology such as AI feels more and more like an oppressive tool in our lives. As I continue to work with technology, I want to focus on imagining radical futures about how technology is embedded in our lives. As artists, we have the power to pose new past, present, and future worlds. What type of worlds do we want to create? How can we begin to set these standards by reflecting on our own practice?
Bishop May Down (they/them) is a Glasgow-based performance maker and facilitator. Their conceptual work imagines queer, post-human, and post-capitalist speculative futures. In their research-based practice they often co-create with software, hardware and algorithm, working at the intersection of somatic practice and interactive technology. They are interested in the theatrical liveness of technology and the juxtaposed creative agency of human and system. Bishop is also a socially engaged artist, working often with and for young people to create boundary-pushing politically engaged projects. Bishop has been supported to make work by Creative Scotland, Tramway, Imaginate, RCS, and Scottish Youth Theatre, and they are currently associated with Platform and Rumpus Room. Conversations with Eve if available for touring.
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