Cole Lewis

Building Brian

“Building Brian” is a 20-minute talk on the creative and ethical process of collaborating with AI in 2021, a live performance about memory, loss, and digital afterlife. Co-creator and performer Cole Lewis shares how AIBrian was developed and integrated onstage, blending improvisation, machine learning, and storytelling. The talk explores the technical steps of building the model, alongside the emotional and ethical complexities of re-animating a father through data.

About Your Instructors

Cole Lewis

Cole Lewis (she/her) is a mom and mad theatre artist from St. Catharines, Ontario. She specializes in creating live performance from design ideas, exploring new modes of storytelling, and fusing technologies to the stage. Her practice includes directing, playwriting, and the design of moving image works. She is Co-Artistic Director of Guilty by Association. Twice nominated for Dora-Awards, Cole’s practice uses humour, design, and technology to explore notions of violence, expose questions of bias, and unsettle standard conceptions of ‘truth’ to explore alternative futures. She has an MFA in Directing from Yale and her thoughts on performance have been shared at LMDA, Howlround, FOLDA, Yale CCAM, and Canadian Theatre Review. Currently, she's writing some new projects and getting 2021 ready for its world premiere in New York.