Guest performance. Production of Finnish contemporary opera company Ooppera Skaala. After the play Turing by Miko Jaakkola and Jussi Lehtonen.
Alan Turing (1912–1954) was a British mathematician who has turned the course of history. Above all he is known as the creator of the machine during World War II, which deciphered the code used by the Germans, thus contributing to the victory of the British / Americans. However, Turing had visions way ahead of this one. In 1930 he devised a concept of a universal machine that laid foundations to the computer revolution. In 1945 he was the first to create an image of an electronic computer. Yet Turing’s true ambition was scientific perception of the mind, highlighted by the infamous dramatic and witty Turing Test for artificial intelligence, as well as his prophecy of the 21st century.
The name of Alan Turing is known not only in the fields of global battle arena or leading technological innovations. He was also a harmless and open homosexual, trying to live in the society that condemned it. In 1952 he openly admitted his homosexuality and was forced to participate in a humiliating “treatment” programme, after which he was seen as a risky person. The suicide he committed in 1954 remains yet another mystery of his remarkable life.
Turing Machine is a new multimedia opera and the music for it was composed by Eeppi Ursin and Visa Oscar. Musical material of the opera mostly consists of live electronics and real-time sampling. The libretto was written by Taina Seitovirta after the drama Turing (2000) by Miko Jaakkola and Jussi Lehtonen, which tells a story of exceptionally talented and complex man Alan Turing. 3D visualisation and digital set design for Turing Machine was created by Merja Nieminen and the team from Crucible Studio.