The stage as a testing ground for technologies
Jonathan Reus is a composer, musician and researcher working at the intersection of performing arts and technology. Reus was the UT artist-in-residence for 2023, where he worked on exploring how AI voice and wearable robotics could be used in performance. Reus' work always involves a collaborative element, and at the UT he worked together with the DesignLab, as well as students and faculty from Creative Technology.
METAORGANISM
The residency culminated with a three-day pressure cooker at the DesignLab, including a group of twenty artists invited by Reus, and participants from the UT including students and researchers. The pressure cooker took the theme “METAORGANISM” - a term originating from recent discoveries in the life sciences pointing to the fact that almost all organisms are part of a larger interdependent meta-organism, made up of multiple beings each with different forms and functions.
PERFORMING ARTS AS RESEARCH
Reus' artistic work makes no distinction between art and research. His background as a composer and musician blends with explorations of science and technology. The live moment and the stage becomes a proving ground for technologies to survive or fail in fragile, human ways.