Professional Development Intensive (PDI)

How do we think, write, or perform with machines? As AI reshapes our creative landscape, this session explores what it means to collaborate with algorithms and stage emerging futures. We will explore the future of theatre, but also reflect on the essence of theatre that will always persist. How do we prepare students to meet this moment? The workshop will equip participants with terms, tools, and artistic case studies that prepare them to jump into the next “quarter” of innovation in the classroom and on stage.

Devon Baur is a scholar and curator whose career has been dedicated to the interplay of art and technology. Her research focuses on performance, new media, and the senses (with a particular focus on smell).  She recently finished a Ph.D. in Theater and Performance Studies at UCLA, and will be lecturing on performance and technology in the fall. Her dissertation examines how artists working with emerging technologies can expand the sensorium. She has lectured at UCLA and Stanford on topics of AI, VR, robots, and digital theater since 2019. She has also been invited for public-facing talks, including AI4ALL, The Armory, and the World Economic Open Forum in Davos.

Beyond her scholarship, she also has public-facing praxis and collaborates with technology labs. She has held a five-year residency in Stanford’s Electrical Engineering department as a researcher and artist-in-residence. During this time, she embarked on interdisciplinary projects that explored multisensory storytelling in virtual spaces. A highlight was her art installation Smell.Print. , which had a solo exhibition at the Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles and was curated in a special screening hosted by The Getty and NASA JPL. She also held residencies/fellowships in the Multi-Sensory Devices Group at the University College of London, and in both the Center for Engineering Media and Performance (REMAP) and the Center for Scholars and Storytellers at UCLA.

Prior to this, she worked in the VR/AR industry for over half a decade as both a curator and producer. Most notably, she produced the award-winning Tree VR, which toured to over 100 festivals, including Tribeca Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and twice to the World Economic Forum in Davos. As a curator, she was lauded by the LA Times for her programming as the Director of the Topanga Film Institute.

She holds a MPhil from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and a BA from Aberystwyth University (UK).