Reconstructing Presence: AI Animation, Interactive Mapping, and Post‑Traumatic Testimony in Alaska and My Country – My DreamLand

Abstract

This paper examines how live performance, AI-generated imagery, and audience interactivity co-produce theatrical meaning in Alaska and H.E.R.O.E.S.: My Country – My DreamLand, two hybrid projects by the Mariupol Theatre in exile after the 2022 siege. In Alaska, AI animations—viral organisms, shifting European borders, authoritarian broadcasts—interact in real time with live testimonies, folk-based lamentations rooted in tradition, and recorded war sounds. In My Country – My DreamLand, spectators co-create AI maps of utopian countries via custom software; their designs and video presentations form a living digital archive displayed in real time. The paper outlines the process (prompt design, projection integration, AI-assisted subtitles), discusses audience reception and trauma-aware facilitation, and proposes a practice-based framework for AI in documentary theatre addressing presence, authorship, and ethics under extreme political and emotional conditions.