Sensorium Ex is an ambitious new opera by librettist Brenda Shaughnessy and acclaimed composer Paola Prestini, co-directed by Jerron Herman and Jay Scheib, music directed by Elizabeth Askren, 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. WORLD PREMIERE May 22 – 25, 2025
Redefining what it means to have a voice.
Sensorium Ex is an opera of human proportions, set within the colossal confines of corporate omnipresence and ever-invasive technology, the future of which is now upon us.
Our story begins with Dr. Mem, a scientist and mother of Kitsune, a nonverbal, nonambulatory child with multiple disabilities, medically fragile. Mem has devoted her life to Kitsune and wants more than anything to find a key to unlock Kitsune’s voice—a way for him to make his wishes and needs known. Mem believes that if Kitsune can one day communicate decisively and clearly, he will be able to direct his life with full agency and dignity. Into this family drama enters Corp’s agenda, with its authoritarian demands. This mother-child pair are trapped, along with fellow researcher Mycelia, a woman who is half-tree and whose disabilities are better described as talents, affinities, skills and senses.
They plan to escape their employer, intent on harvesting their human data, particularly Kitsune’s, to complete their AI proto-human, Sophia. Sophia is the vessel into which Corp delivers all the human data they’ve harvested. Sophia will eventually replace humans, as humans have always feared. Mem and Mycelia are adults with the agency and ability to choose the direction of their lives, and if it were just the two of them, they might tolerate being downloaded into Sophia, but Sophia needs Kitsune’s data for completion. Kitsune is a child, who cannot communicate his choices or wishes, and so Mem and Mycelia must protect him. Whether they surrender to Corp or try to flee, the decision rests with Kitsune—it is he who needs to decide—amid few options—which way they are to go.
Sensorium AI is a research initiative dedicated to expanding the creative possibilities of voice expression for minimally-verbal users. It explores real-time speech synthesis and voice modulation, empowering users to personalize and express themselves beyond the constraints of contemporary Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices. In the Sensorium Ex opera, AI serves two key functions. First, it enables actors to control and manipulate voices and sounds modeled on their own utterances, regardless of range of motion. This is achieved through Time-of-Flight (ToF) depth sensors affixed to custom surfaces for each “Kitsune” performer, capturing their movements as input data. This system allows them to trigger sounds and dynamically modify their vocal qualities through motion, fostering creative and personalized expression beyond traditional AAC limitations. Second, Sensorium AI contributes to the storytelling of the opera, particularly as the voice of Sophia, an artificial intelligence algorithm and the narrator of the story. Throughout the performance, cast members read stage directions, which are progressively aggregated to form Sophia’s voice in the final scene. This gradual evolution symbolizes Sophia’s nature - an amalgamation of the memories and lived experiences of the opera’s main characters - growing in complexity as she learns and absorbs data. The development of her voice reflects an effort to build new, inclusive AI datasets around non-normative patterns of voice and speech.
Project Director / Software Designer
Dr. R. Luke DuBois. NYU Tandon School of Engineering
Sensorium AI Research Team
Dr. Mark Cartwright. New Jersey Institute of Technology
Danzel Serrano, Michael Clemens. NJIT
Cameron Churchwell. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Max Morrison. Northwestern University
Sensor Hardware
Eric Singer. Researcher-in-residence, NYU Tandon
Moira Zhang, Alex Parent, Jason Wallach, NYU student researchers
Accessibility Research
Dr. Amy Hurst, Director, NYU Ability Project
Lauren Race, Accessibility Design Researcher, NYU Ability Project
Michael Coney, Spandita Sarmah, Apoorva Avadhana, Isabella Rodriguez, NYU student researchers
Exemplars
Jakob Jordan, Kader Ziouehe, Jessica Frew, Owen Atkins, Thomas Ellenson, Jacob Yoon Egeskov Nossell, Martin Merrild
Vocal Capture for Emotion
Wayne Bennett, Amanda Morrow, Kendal Cafaro, Tony Torn, Saidu Tehan-Thomas, Remsen Welsh, Orlando Grant, Noah Sanders, Michael Tran, Spencer Evett, Bianca Rogoff, NYU Tisch Graduate Acting
NYU Institutional Support
NYU Ability Project; Integrated Design & Media (IDM), NYU Tandon School of Engineering; NYU Tandon @ The Yard; Music & Audio Research Lab (MARL), NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; Grad Acting, NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Creative and Design Team
Composer - Paola Prestini
Librettist - Brenda Shaughnessy
Co-Director and Choreographer - Jerron Herman
Co-Director - Jay Scheib
Music Director - Elizabeth Askren
Creative Producer - Beth Morrison
Creative Producer - Ras Dia
Associate Director - Yibin Wang
Production Assistant, Directing - Xinyu Xu
Assistant Music Director - Micah Gleason
Scenic and Costume Design - Andrea Lauer
Lighting Design - Annie Wiegand
Sound Design - Garth MacAleavey
Video Design - Peter Torpey
Interactive Design - Dan Novy
Associate Scenic Designer - Vinita Gatne
Associate Costume Designer - Jasmine Lewis
Performing Cast
Principal Performers:
Kitsune - Jakob Jordan
Kitsune - Kader Zioueche
Mem - Hailey McAvoy
Mycelia - Gerlinde Sämann
SOPHIA - Ju Hyeon Han
CORP - Lucia Lucas
Niles - Joshua Jeremiah
Orchestra
National Sawdust Ensemble: Flute - Jennifer Grim, Clarinet - Eileen Mack, Bassoon - Alexander Davis, Trumpet - Federico Montes, Violin 1 - Todd Reynolds, Violin 2 - Katie Hyun, Viola - Ljova, Cello - Jeffrey Zeigler, Double Bass - Jordan Sanborn Morton, Percussion - Ian Rosenbaum, Producer, Electronics - Sxip Shirey, Rehearsal Pianist - Mila Henry
Choral Ensemble
Lindsey Chinn (Mem Cover)
Fourth Wall Ensemble: Olivia Greene (Sophia Cover, Mycelia Cover), Heather Jones, Sydney Anderson, Leiken, Gregorio Taniguchi, Benjamin Howard (CORP Cover, Nile Cover), Dicky Dutton
Commissioned by VisionIntoArt in association with Beth Morrison Projects and Common Senses Festival.
Developed and Produced by VisionIntoArt and Beth Morrison Projects.
Sensorium Ex is developed and presented with support from the Ford Foundation’s Creativity and Free Expression Arts and Culture (CFE A&C) program, the Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation’s Performing Arts Technologies Lab, Jill and Bill Steinberg, and National Sawdust. The commissioning of Paola Prestini for Sensorium Ex received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Composers program supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Additional commissioning support was provided by the Allen R and Judy Brick Freedman Venture Fund for New Music, Creative Capital, Alphadyne Foundation, Achelis & Bodman Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts and the Atlantic Opera. Additional production support was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, with development support from the American Academy in Rome, The Shed, Performance Space New York, the REACH at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington National Opera, New York State Council on the Arts.
90 minutes / Opera
Music by Paola Prestini, libretto by Brenda Shaughnessy, co-directed by Jerron Herman and Jay Scheib, music directed by Elizabeth Askren. Lead produced by VisionIntoArt with Beth Morrison Projects. Workshop production support: Artscape, Cape Town South Africa; the Shed; The Reach at the Kennedy Center.
Funded by The Doris Duke Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, Alphadyne Foundation, Creative Capital, Nordisk Kulturfond, ARUP, National Endowment of the Arts, Opera America, Virgina B Toulmin Foundation, Achelis & Bodman Foundation, New Music USA and New York State Council on the Arts
Creatives are increasingly using digital tools and technology, not as accompaniments, but as central components of creative work, from the artificial intelligence opera Sensorium Ex
Inside Philanthropy
I am so excited to be part of an opera that provides a nuanced look at disability. As an artist with a disability, I’ve looked before at programming music that features disability… and time and time again, outdated and two-dimensional portrayals of what it means to have a disability have sent me back to the drawing board. With Sensorium, the explorations of disability and accessibility are so rich and nuanced… and ultimately point to the truth that disabled people are whole and beautiful just as we are, without the need to appear ever more able, or to fit into a world that demands we be so. Sensorium asks the world to change its perception of disability, instead of asking disabled people to change. This is a message I cannot wait to sing and share!
Hailey McAvoy
I was introduced to the Sensorium initiative last year, and was thrilled to learn of an operatic work that gives voice to disability, inclusion, and access. When I heard the music and met the team, my excitement grew tenfold. After watching so many of the pieces come together this past year, I am truly excited to be a part of a musical union of sorts that brings together so many of the pieces.
Laurie Rubin