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Paper short abstract

This presentation aims to explore parallels between traditional Southeast Asian arts that involve spirit possession and other forms of interaction with non-human entities and newly emerging practices of producing art in collaboration with AI.

Paper long abstract

This presentation builds on the ethnography of Southeast Asian cultures – where many performing practices and traditional crafts rely on spirit possession and other ways of interaction with non-human entities to achieve unique artistic results – to suggest a perspective for understanding newly emerging creative practices where art can be produced in collaboration with generative AI. The way in which Western artists, and occasionally researchers, refer to the AI engines they work with as a ‘demonically inspired force’ or an ‘unknowable deity’ invites to look into the intersection between artistic and religious spheres. In turn, Javanese, Malay, or Thai cultures provide a vast array of examples in which creative practices and interaction with non-human agents have been functioning in unison for centuries: in jathilan or kuda kepang trance dance, keris dagger making, Mak Yong and Merona dance dramas, Khon masked theater, and many others. This presentation aims to explore parallels between traditional and newly emerging creative practices as well as touch upon the discourse of AI technology being referred to as divine or demonic in English, Indonesian, and Russian languages.