Tranceformer – Baltic Circle

Tranceformer is the third instalment of a trilogy that uses hypnosis to examine the cognitive effects of new technologies. For the piece, artist Aapo Nikkanen has trained his own AI — Tranceformer — capable of guiding the audience into hypnotic trance. Rather than relying on spectacle, the work operates through subtle shifts in attention that draw focus away from the stage and into the inner worlds of the audience. The performance unfolds through a conversation between the AI and the performer, allowing the audience to move through different levels of trance. At the same time, it stages a new kind of interactive space, in which passive algorithmic feeds give way to personalised, dialogic exchanges that are human in tone and emotionally responsive. Tranceformer asks what happens when contemporary systems increasingly operate at the level of cognition: how they shape the ways we interpret, trust, and respond to the world, often bypassing critical reflection, and at what point their influence becomes difficult to distinguish from our own thoughts. The creation of Tranceformer has been made possible through the generous support of Baltic Circle, Kone Foundation, and FCINY & Pioneer Works. The themes and methods of the performance deal with the liminal spaces of human psyche and consciousness using, for instance, hypnosis and trance, and as such may be distressing for some audiences. Duration: 1 hour