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Technology, AI take center stage at TACA鈥檚 Perforum symposium

Dancers move in front of a screen with pink and blue patterns.
Imani Black
The group mixtamotus, a human-digital interface art exploration, performs before the keynote panel at TACA's Perforum.

The Arts Community Alliance focused on a buzzy topic this year for its annual Perforum: technology.

Each year, brings together art leaders to discuss the latest trends in the arts.

Maura Sheffler, TACA鈥檚 executive director, said a committee of art leaders identified its theme this year: 鈥淣ew Horizons: Arts, Technology and Adaptation.鈥

Technology can be really scary, in part because so much of art is about the live collective experience,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut tech is here, and so let's embrace it and find ways we can harness it to grow access, to grow connection, to transform art making versus being afraid of it and shrinking away.鈥

Three people perform on a stage. One speaks into a microphone, another sits at the computer and another person freestyle dances.
Imani Black
Maura Sheffler, Vicki Meek and workshop instructor Thomas F. DeFrantz participate in an activity during DeFrantz's "Playing with Ideas Moving in a Virtual Space."

Programming at this year鈥檚 Perforum included workshops on human-centered design, and how to harness artificial intelligence for audience insights and marketing. It also included an interactive workshop with Thomas F. DeFrantz, a professor at Northwestern University who leads the group Slippage: Performance, Culture, Technology.

DeFrantz鈥檚 group explores the intersection of emerging technologies and live performance. He said access is an important discussion when it comes to technology.

鈥淭he people who have access to these technologies [AI, ChatGPT, processing power, electricity, Internet access] are the people who are shaping what we can do,鈥 he said.

Sheffler said artists are used to breaking boundaries and seizing new opportunities, and the integration of technology and art is no different.

鈥淚 hope people leave today with a sense of excitement about what opportunities technology can provide our artists and our arts organizations.鈥

Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and 四虎影院.

This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, The University of Texas at Dallas, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and 四虎影院 retain full editorial control of Arts Access鈥 journalism.

Elizabeth Myong is 四虎影院鈥檚 Arts Collaborative Reporter. She came to 四虎影院 from New York, where she worked as a CNBC fellow covering breaking news and politics. Before that, she freelanced as a features reporter for the Houston Chronicle and a modern arts reporter for Houstonia Magazine.