Opera on Tap receives $250,000 from The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to fund an innovative immersive opera project in partnership with HERE.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MARCH 2023 –
Press Contact: press@operaontap.com
Opera on Tap and HERE are thrilled to announce a major grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to fund the development of LOOKING AT YOU, an immersive techno-noir opera by composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Rob Handel, developed with and directed by Kristin Marting, which confronts the serious issue of privacy in our digitized society. In addition the grant will support the development of a research project around the opera, led by leading privacy expert Professor Alessandro Acquisti and the Privacy Economics Experiments Lab of Carnegie Mellon University.
Set inside a corporate headquarters, LOOKING AT YOU exposes urgent questions of our time regarding Internet privacy and surveillance capitalism in this highly charged story of love, espionage, and cyber-surveillance, fusing a 21st century whistle-blower with CASABLANCA. Integral to the opera is a provocative data-mining component where audience members’ data is mined before the show, then used in the show itself, weaving it into the story, viscerally alerting and exposing the audience to the reality of today’s digital world: a space where strangers may be identified in public spaces, where their data is publicly available; and where sensitive information may be inferred starting from entirely publicly available data. The opera’s message is to inform and sensitize individuals about the true capabilities of modern data-mining, privacy-eroding technologies, using the audience-data-opera interaction to enlighten viewers better than any websites’ privacy policies or traditional articles can ever accomplish.
The leadership gift of $250,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will support major advancements in the opera’s mining technology, along with critical research and educational components to inform the public about technology’s serious impact in terms of awareness, sensitization, dissemination, and privacy paradoxes. Opera on Tap’s Founder and Artistic Director, Anne Hiatt explained “The Sloan Foundation’s generous gift is truly a game-changer to foster more sophisticated technological components which are the hallmark of LOOKING AT YOU; these advancements will greatly elevate the immersive artistic experience for future audiences and will provide insightful research that could significantly influence how we implement privacy laws.”
Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation stated: “LOOKING AT YOU fuses art and technology into a powerful platform for entertainment, education and social awareness about the continuing erosion of our privacy. Sloan’s program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology supports an array of multi-media art forms as well as special initiatives to protect consumer privacy and security in the digital age. We’re delighted to partner with Opera on Tap in this original and important project.”
Originally commissioned and produced by HERE, and co-produced by Opera on Tap in association with Experiments in Opera, LOOKING AT YOU was conceived by Kamala Sankaram and Rob Handel and developed with and directed by Kristin Marting (Founding Artistic Director of HERE). The opera premiered on September 6, 2019 and ran through September 21 at HERE in New York City. Kristin has 25 years of experience directing hybrid works of theatre that incorporate technology and live performance. Her works have appeared on national and international stages to critical acclaim. Of this work, Kristin stated: “Looking at You is an imaginative, engaging and innovative way into examining and combatting the steady and scary erosion of our individual privacy online“. Kristin is the Principal Investigator overseeing all aspects of integration of data-mining with the creative content, narrative, and experience of the opera.
The data-mining integration within the show and the research project that is being developed around the presentation of the opera is led by Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross, both experts in the field of privacy and researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s Privacy Economics Experiments (PEEX) Lab. Alessandro is the Trustees Professor of Information Technology at Carnegie Mellon University and will join our team for this project. His work has spearheaded the investigation of privacy and disclosure behavior in online social networks and the application of economics and behavioral economics to the study of privacy. Of this project, Alessandro stated “the ties between LOOKING AT YOU and privacy research on social media run deep – the very plot of the Opera relates to findings from studies on Facebook and face recognition Ralph Gross and I conducted at Carnegie Mellon University. We are excited to push those ties deeper – bringing the technologies we studied in our research into the very interaction with the live audiences of LAY.” Alessandro has testified before the US Congress on privacy issues. His findings have been featured in international media outlets, including The Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, Wired, CNN, and 60 Minutes.
ABOUT ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York based, philanthropic, not-for-profit institution that makes grants in three areas: research in science, technology, and economics; quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and public engagement with science. Sloan’s pioneering program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, aims to enrich people’s lives through a keener appreciation of our increasingly scientific and technological world and to humanize the lives of the men and women working as scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. The goal is to integrate the two cultures of science and the humanities by supporting an array of original works such as books, radio, television, film, theater, and new media and to support special initiatives that strengthen science as a social good. For more information visit sloan.org or follow @SloanPublic on Twitter or Facebook.
ABOUT HERE
Since 1993, HERE builds an inclusive community that nurtures artists of all backgrounds as they disrupt conventional expectations to create innovative performances in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media, and visual art. By providing these genre-blending artists with an adaptive, flexible home for developing and producing their work, we share a range of perspectives reflective of the complexity of our city. HERE welcomes curious audiences to witness groundbreaking performances, responsive to the world in which we live, at free and affordable prices. To learn more visit: https://here.org
ABOUT OPERA ON TAP
Opera on Tap began as a small monthly gathering of ambitious, classically-trained singers looking for more performance opportunities. OOT has grown into a producing organization that has gained a loyal audience base and national recognition as an innovative force on the classical music scene. Through its Chapter program, which now has thirty vibrant national and international chapters, OOT has created one of the world’s largest networks of operatic performers, creators, and supporters. Along the way, Opera on Tap has developed the Immersive Opera Project, New Brew, and other programming that commissions living composers, and performs works of contemporary composers. Our flagship education program, Playground Opera, educates children in the world of opera, music and theatre across the globe. We are headquartered as a national organization in Brooklyn, NY and, in addition to supporting our chapters around the world, present locally produced programs intended to adhere to our mission of community engagement through opera.
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