Artificial Intelligence is going to be a theme of many Fringe shows this year, and possibly for a few years to come. David Head’s Distant Memories of the Near Future will be one of the better ones because for all that it plays around with ideas of how AI will develop, its focus is on what is really important to us: the connections we make with each other.
As anyone who has seen Head’s Unforgotten Objects will know, he is a superb storyteller. That is the core of his performance here, with stories that are separate but interlink, circling and intersecting in unusual ways. We are in the near future where almost every aspect of our experiences can be monetised and commodified, our formative memories and experiences used to make convincing back stories for AI avatars, our voices sold to be reused as those of AI generated adverts. It feels futuristic and probably knowingly overplays the current abilities of AI, but it’s a piercing satire on how large tech companies already mine our data to work out how to sell to us better.
The stories focus on the relationships between people, how they come into being, the connections that are forged, and how they grow into something meaningful or sometimes fall apart. There are moments of real beauty, sometimes most unexpectedly. As I was wondering where he could take a scene featuring a torch shone on what looked like an Action Man diorama, I found myself welling up.
In between are hilarious adverts encouraging us to sell our stories, and more insidiously insisting that it is our duty to do so. It is even mandatory to listen to the adverts themselves. It seems our attention is currency.
This is a wonderful show which falls into its own trap towards the end. It convinces us that despite the rise of AI and the algorithms determining what we experience online, it is the connections between humans that brings meaning to our lives. So, it is unfortunate that there is an overlong period when there is only a screen playing, and we lose that precious and painstakingly created connection with Head which has been the delight of the show.
Having said that, Head is a gifted storyteller with the insight to recognise when the story or his delivery may be getting too grandiose, and he can switch to a self-deprecating persona for just a moment. It’s an endearing quality that draws the audience to him, and we are back onside by the end of one of the most thoughtful and well-crafted shows you will see this Fringe.