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Natural Performances with Artificial Intelligence

Using GPT for Scenes, Imagery, Focal Points and Emotion

Paper by Jonathan Robie and Discussion on Zoom

Thursday January 9, 2025

2pm Central Time

Join us for presentation and discussion of Jonathan Robie's "Natural Performances with Artificial Intelligence: Using GPT for Scenes, Imagery, Focal Points and Emotion" on Zoom on Thursday January 9, 2025 at 2pm Central Time. A performer embodies the text, using voice and gesture to convey emotional flow, imagery, relationships in time and space, and other aspects of the text. Accuracy requires detailed, careful analysis of the text. The performer must study, imagine, and internalize these relationships. This presentation uses GPT (systems like ChatGPT) to prepare a Psalm for performance by: 1. Dividing the Psalm into distinct scenes. 2. Highlighting key imagery within each scene. 3. Mapping the emotional progression throughout the Psalm. 4. Creating questions to aid deeper understanding and internalization. We use a GPT framework to analyze biblical texts in Hebrew or Greek. A user can specify an analysis and the desired output structure, applying it to a set of passages. It is easy to try out new analyses, weeding out unhelpful ones and applying useful analyses to other texts. The analyses mentioned above can be found here for each of the Psalms: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JHHwtbKeFeOmHl0-wxOFqE_5W9DgmpbWiYWtn0QBqFM/edit?usp=sharing Emotional Flow uses a model of emotion closely related to "heart" in both Greek and Hebrew, based loosely on Martha Nussbaum's "Upheavals of Thought." Emotion enriches our relationships with God and others, guiding us in situations beyond our control and understanding, and helping flourish. These GPT-based analyses surprised us. They reveal deeply human aspects of biblical texts, offering multiple perspectives to help performers internalize and embody the text. We end the presentation by doing an oral performance of the Psalm based on these analyses.

Register for the Zoom meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtf-GrrDgqE9EIv89WtgqPrgdk9AtsEcA_

Performing Philemon: Possibilities and Limitations

Nov 20, 2023  at SBL in San Antonio, TX

This session of Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts (PC-BOAT) experienced three different embodiments of Paul's letter to Philemon and asking respondents to reflect on how performance illuminates the possibilities and limitations of meaning making for an audience. Click on the links below to watch video of each performance and response.

Clifford Barbarick, Abilene Christian University, Presiding

Performances of Philemon by:

Michael Halcomb, Glossa House Publishing

Jeanette Mathews, Charles Sturt University

Marlon Winedt, United Bible Societies

Response and Discussion of Performances of Philemon:

Amy Erickson, Charles Sturt University

Shola Adegbite, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Pieter Botha, University of South Africa

Nathan Esala, Capital University

Discussion

Philippians

Performance and Analysis

by Clifford Barbarick, Abilene Christian University

Presented in the Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts (PC-BOAT)

At the SBL Annual Meeting in San Antonio on 20 Nov 2021

To watch the video, click this link or watch in the window below:

https://vimeo.com/650290566