Alexa, turn on the lights is a solo performance by Brisbane based artist Jacob Watton and his brother Ben Watton that interrogates the relationship between Jacob and technology. This project uses Amazon Alexa technology in tandem with Jacob’s performance to develop an eclectic, interdisciplinary toolkit of comedic theatre and digital performance. This piece is scoped to fit in many different environments from a black box theatre space, to a cafe or spiegeltent.

Alexa, turn on the lights is looking to unpack the symbiotic relationship between technology and humanity. How we use technology as a tool to connect; reaching outside the human barriers of place and experience to find out more about the world around us. Through the development of bespoke applications integrated with the Alexa technology, the work questions this reliance on technology, shining a light on the many ways that technology is inadequate in fulfilling our need for connection. The power of this performance comes from its ability to be interacted with. The shows technology with developed using artificial intelligence, so much of its correspondence during the show is generated by the technology in real time. In Short, Alexa will say different things every show. She uses Artificial Intelligence in order to present what she feels is the most correct answer to any given question or image. The performers role in this relationship is to act as a middle man between Alexa and the audience, helping to make sense of and analyse (in a really fun way) the responses that Alexa develops in real time. Because of this the audience can interact with Alexa in seemingly endless ways making each performance a distinctly different experience dependent on the choices made by the audience and Alexa.

Using autobiographical content as a basis, Jacob effortlessly underpins the very real tension between himself and technology. Setting his performance in direct opposition to an inanimate object, Alexa, that appears to have a very real mind of her ow