Conversation Piece
2017
A series of audio artworks exploring, automation, verbal communication and emotive interactions with machines
With Ayami Awazuhara
Conversation Piece is a series of audio based participatory artworks made in collaboration with Ayami Awazuhara that explore the consequences of synthetic communication and the emotional relationships we may come to build with interfaces and conversational intelligences.
The series so far:
S01E01: Conversation Piece
"Just imagine this now—a future where the boring and basic trivialities of the everyday are replaced with a life full of wonder, of joy and of brilliant relaxation"
The series began life as an event commissioned by KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin during which, participants were given a specially formulated cocktail to drink while listening to an 18-minute audio piece featuring suggestive material about accepting the role of software in our everyday life.
The audio explores the use of visualisation exercises, meditative states and hypnosis in both inducing and overcoming a fear of technology, as we slouch toward a future more automated. The work explores the potential for accidental and unanticipated interactions with conversational machines and how they may shape our perception through the language and instruction.
Listen to an audio extract here S01E01:
S01E01: Conversation Piece has been restaged at the following institutions:
23 / 04 / 2017, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.
05 / 05 / 2017, Agisilaou 36 in Metaxourghio, Athens
21 / 07 / 2017, Kunsthalle Lissabon,
15 / 08 / 2017, The Quadrangle Kent
23 / 09 / 2017, Jupiter Woods, London
Space may well be full of objects just crashing into each other, spreading these molecules around, seeding planets and star systems with life. The whole galaxy might be a single, interconnected biosphere.
S01E02: Elevator Pitch was originally exhibited at SUPER SUPER SUPER Berlin, inside a modified storage space, with the audience was split into groups of a maximum eight visitors and guided to a modified unit of a storage facility called "Lagerbox" in Berlin.
The second episode brings the audience into an encounter with an elevator keen to reflect on the conditions and origin of life, both artificial and potentially intergalactic.
You can listen to episode S01E02 below. It's suggested that you listen on headphones in a small room or perhaps over the stereo in a parked car.
S01E02: Elevator Pitch was exhibited at:
June 7th - June 21st, 2018 - SUPER SUPER SUPER, Berlin
July 14th - August 11th, 2018, May the bridges I burn light the way, MANIFESTA 12, Palermo
The experience was restaged as part of MANIFESTA 12, Palermo as part of May the bridges I burn light the way, organised Exile Gallery, with visitors able to experience the work in 120 taxis across the city.
