Ask Ada

The multimedia opera Ask Ada tells the story of Ada Lovelace, a mathematician born in 1815, the daughter of the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Lovelace is considered the inventor of the first computer algorithm in 1843. ‘The analytical engine might act upon other things besides number.’ Ada demonstrated a visionary understanding of the future, predicting the rise of artificial intelligence. Ask Ada sheds light on her life and work, while also reflecting on poems by her famous father and the impact of artificial intelligence on our lives. 

Yannis Kyriakides makes extensive use of algorithms while composing. In Ask Ada, he thus builds on Lovelace’s idea that numbers can be replaced by something else – by musical notes. Darien Brito’s video art in the performance, like the music, springs from a combination of artistic intuition and computer codes generated by algorithms.