documentation clip of "You" by Ken Feingold (2004)

Two identical heads (but one with a male and one with a female voice) lie on pillows upon a kitchen table, emerging from a sort of shipping case. They argue with each about their relationship, make up, regret their argument, and begin to argue again - each time slightly different but generally in a similar way. We see how oft-repeated phrases can have little real meaning, but a lot of power to do harm. The endlessness of their predicament is literally programmed and self-perpetuating, going nowhere - perhaps a way to think about those who cannot escape from similar cases.

This work is a "cinematic sculpture". The dialog is not pre-recorded, and is different each time someone visits it, generated in real time by a computer program. The conversations that these figures carry on are neither completely scripted, nor are they random; rather, the software gives each a 'personality', a vocabulary, associative habits, obsessions, and other quirks of personality which allow them to behave as if in a scene of film, acting out their role over and over, but always changing.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• New Media
• Art
• Media Art
• Installation Art
• Sculpture
• AI
• Animatronics
• Interactive Art
• robotics
• robots
• artificial intelligence