Tranceformer is the third instalment of a trilogy that uses hypnosis to examine the cognitive effects of new technologies. For the piece, Nikkanen has trained his own AI — Tranceformer — capable of guiding the audience into hypnotic trance.
Rather than relying on spectacle, the work operates through subtle shifts in attention that draw focus away from the stage and into the inner worlds of the audience.
The performance unfolds through a conversation between the AI and the performer, allowing the audience to move through different levels of trance. At the same time, it stages a new kind of interactive space, in which passive algorithmic feeds give way to personalised, dialogic exchanges that are human in tone and emotionally responsive.
Tranceformer asks what happens when contemporary systems increasingly operate at the level of cognition: how they shape the ways we interpret, trust, and respond to the world, often bypassing critical reflection, and at what point their influence becomes difficult to distinguish from our own thoughts.
WORKING GROUP ARTIST BIOS
- Aapo Nikkanen is an artist, researcher, and trained hypnotherapist. His current work focuses on hypnotic performances and photography. His works address how contemporary systems increasingly operate at the level of cognition, shaping how we interpret, trust, and respond to the world — often bypassing critical reflection.
In his photographic practice, subjects are captured while in a hypnotic trance. Rather than posing for the camera, they inhabit imagined states, producing images that allow temporary detachment from the social roles and masks normally shaping one’s behaviour.
The work of Nikkanen has been shown internationally for the past 10 years. His work has exhibited in numerous international institutions, including at Palais de Tokyo and Fondation Ricard (Paris), New Performance Turku Biennale, International Film Festival Rotterdam, La Casa Encendida (Madrid), The Living Art Museum (Reykjavík), and de Appel (Amsterdam).
- Raudie McLeod is a classically trained orchestral percussionist whose early career was shaped by the music of modernist composers such as Frank Ticheli and Eric Whitacre, alongside percussion-and-minimalist pioneers Steve Reich and Philip Glass. McLeod has released several albums under various aliases and toured extensively as River Yarra. In addition to his personal work, Mcleod regularly scores for theater, film, and clients.
- Michael Price’s work reveals the hidden absurdities in the objects and routines that shape daily life, exploring how collective beliefs and habits shape understandings of memory, mortality, and the environment. His studies at Goldsmiths (BA Design) and editorial role with EYESORE magazine (2016–2022) fostered a critical psychogeographic approach that continues to inform his practice. Price often incorporates found or repurposed materials as direct mediums to explore modern existence.
Director & Performer: Aapo Nikkanen
Composition & Sound design: Raudie McLeod
Scenography: Michael Price
SFX makeup: Pauline Meola
The creation of Tranceformer has been made possible through the generous support of Baltic Circle, Kone Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, and Pioneer Works.