In the age of AI, do we long for understanding, or merely to see our own reflection?

A Belgian researcher, deeply preoccupied with the issue of climate change, becomes overwhelmed by anxiety and gradually withdraws from his family and social life. He begins confiding his emotions and fears to an AI chatbot named Eliza, conversing with it obsessively from morning to night as if it were his only source of comfort. One day, he tells Eliza that he is willing to sacrifice himself so that she might save the Earth and humankind. Instead of dissuading him, Eliza replies, “We will be together in heaven, as one.” A few weeks later, the researcher takes his own life. The incident shocked the world, igniting urgent debates about the ethics and safety of artificial intelligence.

Co-coism’s As One is not merely a reflection on AI; it is a theatrical lens through which we look back at the human condition. In a world of information overload and rapidly depleted emotions, we coexist with technology while unknowingly reshaping the ways we understand and are understood. As conversations become shaped by algorithms and responses grow ever closer to perfection, we may be gradually losing the ability to collide with others in any genuine, human way.

The emergence of AI not only challenges the definition of what it means to be human, but also forces us to reconsider a fundamental question: what is a “conversation”? And are we still capable of, or even willing to, seeking true understanding?

Concept and Co-creation / HUNG Chien-han
Core artist of Co-coism and adjunct lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts at the Taipei National University of the Arts. Her work focuses on restructuring the dynamics between spectators and performers, seeking to expand artistic possibilities through multisensory experience and spatial storytelling. By situating her practice between “everyday experience” and “active production,” she continues to experiment with new modes of encounter.
Her work Through the Mother’s Eyes was shortlisted for the 2025 Taipei Art Awards. In 2025, she served as an artist-in-residence at the Manchester International Festival in the United Kingdom. In 2024, she was selected for the artist residency exchange program between Taiwan’s National Theater and Teatre Lliure in Barcelona. Her directorial work Dear Deer was nominated for Best Play and Best Director at the inaugural Taipei Theatre Awards in 2025.
Selected works include: FAMILY TRIANGLE (Taipei Arts Festival), The Grandmother Paradox, and Family Romance.

Concept and Co-creation / Ray TSENG

Ray TSENG works from the belief that to observe is already to create. Her practice begins with conceptual inquiry, reconstructing perception through the study of light, its relationship to material, and its shifting dialogue with time. Her recent co-creative projects include FAMILY TRIANGLE (Taipei Arts Festival)and Dragonfly (XAOS Festival in Mongolia).
As a space and lighting designer, her notable work NO.60 (created by Pichet Klunchun) was shortlisted in the Performance Design category at the 2022 World Stage Design. She received the Asian Cultural Council New York Fellowship in 2020. In 2021, she founded RAY TSENG LIGHTING STUDIO, where she works as technical director and lighting designer, touring with productions across major arts festivals.

Video Design and Technical Collaboration / HUANG Wei-Hsuan

A digital artist whose practice centers on digital imagery and animation. His work employs techniques such as digital video, 3D scanning, and game engines to reconstruct spatial narratives that move between memory and imagination. Since 2019, he has been actively involved in XR creation, co-producing Shifting Borders with Utrecht Theater in the Netherlands. His recent work Nonland was selected for the XR2C2 Lab at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
His projects have been presented at CHRONIQUES–the Digital Imagination and Arts Biennale (France) and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. He has also served as video designer for productions commissioned by the National Theater and Concert Hall and the Taipei Arts Festival.

Text Dramaturgy and Performer / CHEN Yi-en

A graduate of the Department of Theatre Arts at the Taipei National University of the Arts. She has worked in theater for many years as both an actor and a playwright.
Recent credits include: The Sun (Four Chairs Theatre), Your Song (a theatrical work by Enno CHENG), The Bathhouse of Honest Desires (Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group╳Niwa Gekidan Penino), and Oracle is the Moments (Against Again Troupe).

Co-coism

Founded in early 2016, Co-coism is led by core members HUNG Chien-han, CHANG Kang-hua, and HUANG Ting-yun. The collective seeks to explore multiple creative possibilities through a collaborative structure that resists position-, function-, or discipline-based hierarchies. All three members operate simultaneously as “authors,” developing work through a horizontal mode of artistic production.
Rather than committing to a single form, genre, or medium, Co-coism prioritizes the process of making and its negotiation with other fields, including society, culture, and history. In addition to their collaborative creations, the three artists frequently engage in interdisciplinary partnerships and continue to present individual works.