For Science Week 2024, ADAPT teamed up with Deaf theatre makers to develop a new science fiction play in Irish Sign Language to explore the future of artificial intelligence. Here’s some background on the project —
In 2022, Shaun O’Boyle (ADAPT) teamed up with Lianne Quigley (ADAPT, Dublin Theatre of the Deaf) and Alvean Jones (Dublin Theatre of the Deaf) to develop a Science Week event and short film that combined Irish Sign Language (ISL) performances of Shakespeare with an exploration of sign language machine translation. Shaun and Lianne were both working on SignON, a research project at ADAPT developing sign language technologies through community engagement, and this work was done as part of the co-creation strand. Co-creation for SignON—where community input helped direct the project—was led by the European Union of the Deaf, and so our goal was to create something that would engage Deaf and hard of hearing communities with the potential impact of these new technologies, and to share community feedback with the hearing scientists working on them.
Based on a pilot by the art-science space, Association TRACES, we developed a Shakespeare performance, which was followed by an audience discussion, and a short film—all looking at the potential impacts, positive and negative, of sign language machine translation. The project was funded by Science Foundation Ireland (now Taighde Éireann—Research Ireland), and the first performance took place in the Trinity Long Room Hub as part of Science Week 2022. We published a reflective summary of the process in the Journal of Science Communication in 2023, and had identified several benefits to the approach. In a 2023 paper, De Meulder et al. proposed that the approach could be an effective way to address “co-creation fatigue” in Deaf communities.
SignON was completed in 2023, but we wanted to continue exploring art-science projects developed in ISL as a way to engage with Deaf and hard of hearing communities about the future of artificial intelligence (AI). Once again, Shaun teamed up with Lianne and Alvean—but this time to develop a new short play inspired by classic science fiction. Specifically, Lianne and Alvean looked at 19th and 20th Century science fiction that dealt with the ethical implications of emerging technologies, by projecting future scenarios. This resulted in Predictive Texts, which was performed in the Trinity Long Room Hub for Science Week 2024, and once again supported by Research Ireland.
Predictive Texts is set in the distant future, where Anna (played by Lianne) is an astronaut carrying out repairs on her ship. The only other crew member is an emergency interpreter hologram (played by Alvean), and the play explores their dynamic as the hologram fails to grasp the complexities of ISL. The performance combined humour and tension, and reflected present day experiences with AI technologies. It was followed by a fascinating and lively audience discussion, where different people shared their experiences with AI, their relationship with interpreting services, and their thoughts on the future of AI in the Deaf community—spanning the potential risks to the potential benefits. We will also be producing a short filmed version of the performance, which will tour to Deaf arts and community spaces, and spark even more conversations about AI and sign languages.
