Simon Images
Channelling science fiction as a source of inspiration, techniques and social critique, the show invites you to explore the technological predicament in which we find ourselves. Our current engagements with Artificial Intelligence (AI), for example Siri or Alexa, are consciously designed to elicit receptive anthropomorphic responses. However, as technology change continues to accelerate and increasingly permeates our domestic lives, what might happen if we reach the point of singularity? The point when AI becomes generally intelligent and surpasses human intelligence? Our relationship with future AIs is likely to be very different from the AI interactions we have today.
Fascinated by our human-technology relationships, how they change us, and their potentially dehumanising outcomes, this work endeavours to express our ambivalent and often contradictory emotions towards technology. The installation Simon aims to immerse the viewer in a playful world that speculates on concepts such as: who will care for these future AIs, how will they derive comfort and will older generation AIs or humans become their caregivers? Will a convergence or divergence of AI and the human species occur, where AIs becomes more human or humans more machinelike? And ultimately, will they replace us?
If we succeed in developing super intelligent multifunctional obedient non-humans, the rewards would be substantial. However, we could end up inventing a super intelligent manufactured omniscient nuisance to us all, which constantly plies its wares and invades our privacy in the pursuit of profit. Or our creation could become the super intelligent machine overlord nightmare we have all been dreading. Simon playfully speculates on the futility of our situation, its origins and the uncertain nature of our future AI-human relationships.
Simon – Installation View
The Babysitter
The Dance
The Incubator