A scenic and musical piece invites reflection on artificial intelligence.

Omar González Morales

La Jornada Newspaper, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, p. 5

The work Memor(IA) is a blend of chamber music and theater that invites the audience to reflect on artificial intelligence (AI). Created by members of the UNAM Music Composition Workshop, three young performers worked with a trio of composers, a playwright, and a stage designer to create an immersive experience.

The piece, which will be performed on Saturday in the auditorium of the UNAM's Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), was created after only six months of work and is divided into three acts, reflecting on the importance of this technology from various temporal perspectives.

Led by maestros Ana Lara, Claudio Valdés Kuri, and Rodrigo Vázquez, who were in charge of the musical, dramatic, and scenic aspects, respectively, and supported by director Valentina Manzini, the young musicians—all under 30 years old—faced the challenge of breaking down their stigmas regarding the use of AI.

Innovative project

At a press conference, Ana Lara stated that for the training of a performer, "it's important to reflect that music is always part of something bigger. It's very good for the ego and helps us work collaboratively. For our workshop participants, it's key because it allows them to understand transdisciplinary work and give it a greater dimension."

We have incredible talent in Mexico; young people are very promising. These kinds of projects didn't exist before. In Europe, there's already a movement where concerts are stage experiences. There's interest from performers and composers, but there wasn't a place to experience it , the composer commented.

Valdés Kuri commented that before shaping the story, a dramaturgy laboratory was held with the composers and performers, in which they gave their opinion on the use of AI: from there we formed the narrative and adjusted the libretto to cover each of those positions and create a timeline .

When asked specifically, the playwright asserted that even the best science fiction will always have loose ends; we're always talking about the future. The crux of the matter is this: what position should we take? In my case, AI continues to build on what already exists, and we always have new possibilities. The composer is fully invested in this performance because he has to put his point of view first on stage; that's the biggest challenge .

Both clarified that, although the music was not generated with the help of AI, the work works with experimental music to lead the audience to a sensory-based reflection: We want the audience to draw their own conclusions about this new tool that learns from us and our reactions on social media .

Travel through time

The first act, called Dystopian Future , with music composed by Oaxacan Leonel Aldino, is set in 2125, with a human attached to AI, through which he rediscovers a melody through an old radio, so he decides to send a message to the past to recover the old way of making music.

Gunajuato composer Tigrio R. Witrago composed the second act, Catastrophic Past , set in 1932, when a mysterious sound causes a global radio blackout. Specialists are attempting to analyze it, but for political reasons, one researcher hides the recording of the event, but saves the information in a radio.

Finally, Miguel Urquizo, also from Guanajuato, made the arrangement Presente perdido , set in the current year, in which a composer finds the recording mentioned in the previous act and, with the help of an AI, reconstructs the broadcast and programs it to play again in the future.

The pieces will be performed by soprano Irma Sánchez Gutiérrez, saxophonist Azalia Hernández Villalobos, pianist Naomi Ponce León and double bassist Alejandro Hernández Motta, who will perform a work in progress , as the interpretation of works that do not yet have a definitive form is called.

The Memor(IA) concert will take place on Saturday at 12 noon in the MUAC auditorium. Tickets cost 100 pesos each and will go on sale the same day at the museum's box office.