"To Have A Voice Is Everything"
Jacob Nossell
Disability Activist, Sensorium Advisory Board
Collaborators:
Paola Prestini, composer
Jerron Herman & Jay Scheib, directors
Brenda Shaughnessy, librettist
NYU Ability Lab, technology
Produced by VisionIntoArt in association with Beth Morrison Projects
Cast:
Hailey McAvoy, mezzo-soprano
Kader Zioueche, actor
Jakob Jordan, actor
Laurie Rubin, mezzo-soprano
Ju Hyeon Han, soprano
Lucia Lucas, baritone
Joshua Jeremiah, baritone
Other cast members to be announced soon.
Sensorium Ex is an ambitious new opera by librettist Brenda Shaughnessy and acclaimed composer Paola Prestini, co-directed by Jerron Herman and Jay Scheib, that synthesizes artificial intelligence, disability, and the arts in a groundbreaking and innovative artistic work.
The visionary production pushes the boundaries of what it means to have a voice, paving the way for future artists with disabilities. Sensorium Ex delves deep into the essence of voice, transcending the limits of language to profoundly reimagine what it can be.
Operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), disability, and the arts, Sensorium Ex explores the fundamental question of what it means to have voice, and the nature of voice beyond language. Internationally-acclaimed composer Paola Prestini’s expansive, multi-modal work tells a dystopian tale centered on a mother and her son, a nonverbal, nonambulatory child with multiple disabilities, as they resist a villainous corporate entity's attempts to destroy what it means to be human.
Blurring the lines between art and technology, the opera will feature a new set of AI tools developed in partnership with NYU’s Ability Lab that will expand the possibilities for voice and expression in people with disordered, impaired, or limited speech. With a cast of predominantly disabled performers, the project seeks to devise new artistic practices which center disability equity and access throughout all steps in the process. Sensorium Ex is composed by Paola Prestini, co-produced by VisionIntoArt and Beth Morrison Projects, directed by Jerron Herman and Jay Scheib, and features a libretto by poet Brenda Shaughnessy. Premiering for the first time at Common Senses Festival 2025, Sensorium Ex creates an entirely new operatic world – one that redefines who gets to have a voice.
Opera
Synopsis | A mother’s love, science/tech ethics, romance, corporate greed, a mystical escape, and a robot named Sophia come together in this story about what it means to be human...
Sensorium Ex is an opera for soloists, choir, chamber orchestra and electronics - exploring the nature of voice beyond language, non-speaking or non-typical patterns of speech and voice in opera, and what it means to be truly human. The use of artificial intelligence expands the possibilities for voice and expression in this dystopian tale.
Kitsune is a young boy with a disability who is non-speaking. The Opera centers around his relationship with his mother, Mem, as they seek to explore their own forms of expression, listening and exchange beyond the conventions of spoken language.
Kitsune will be co-created with the actor(s) in the role alongside the project’s choreographer through a series of residencies bringing together disability activists, artists, and families navigating the experiences of disability.
In a culminating scene of the opera called “the escape”- traditional notation will be replaced by medieval chant notation-neumes and a mixture of sound and language and direction and color. Like Benedictine monks, the ensemble will improvise on a series of calls and responses within which Mem and Kitsune are held, embodying a shared sense of space and purpose.
Sophia, the robot narrator of the story, is an amalgamation of the memories and lived experiences of the opera’s main characters. Her musical voice will be developed through a co-creative process which seeks to build new, inclusive AI datasets around non-normative patterns of voice and speech.
Tech
Sensorium AI is an international research, arts and technology project, with the overall aim of democratizing the development of voice-recognition AI and expanding possibilities for creative expression of voice.
The project has a specific focus on strengthening the experience of voice for people with voice-related disabilities, speech impairments and atypical speech patterns - beginning with the Cerebral Palsy community and expanding outward from there.
Sensorium AI will place an emphasis on both physical voice and expression, as well as voice in terms of social and democratic participation. The process will lead to a variety of outcomes including an interactive art installation and the development of creative voice technologies for artists with disabilities, which will be integrated into the Sensorium Ex opera.
The Sensorium AI project will be developed through a deep collaboration with the NYU Ability program and Arup.
Impact
Sensorium Ex is aiming to pioneer new approaches to creating opera in the 21st century.
Equity through Artistic Innovation
Devising artistic practices which center disability equity and access at all steps in the process - pioneering inclusive casting practices; co-creating the aesthetics and expressions of the opera with disabled cast and artists; designing a fully inclusive and accessible audience experience.
Knowledge & Documentation
The learnings and methods developed through the process will be documented, codified and scaled to partner institutions (for example: practices around inclusive casting, access needs, and co-creation - working with collaborators at across the country to integrate these practices institutionally.
Ecosystem Building
Sensorium Ex has created a platform for artistic development and knowledge exchange bringing together major arts institutions (Kennedy Center, Artscape) universities (NYU) and companies (ARUP) to collaborate and generate both the artistic work and support structures which drive equity-centered practices.
