INTERACTIVE ARTWORK/ IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE
HUMAN VERSES MACHINE
HUMAN VERSES MACHINE (2024) is part Interactive artwork and part stage performance critiquing the effects of AI on the written and spoken word, debuted at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2024. An output of Writing the Wrongs of AI (WWAI), a project led by Pip Thornton and funded by BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides).
OUR ROLES
Concept development
Programming
Design & production
Data processing
LEX-9000
LEX-9000 is an interactive artwork developed in collaboration with Pip Thornton. It’s a short interactive experience created to educate the public about generative AI. It takes the form of a retro-futuristic robot that riffs on creative ideas. Relentlessly upbeat, he encourages you to indulge your headiest literary fantasies, or not: if you get stuck, LEX takes over to polish prose, run with the theme, or drop in the perfect twist. However as you ‘collaborate’ the truth behind the shiny promises are revealed.
AI is your friend
We objectified the AI industries’ pre-tense that generative AI is your friend by designing the LEX 9000 unit in a Fallout inspired retro-futuristic style with a cute and friendly face.
Stranger than fiction
We created advertising assets to ironically promote the fictional product. However it’s close to impossible to be more outrageous than the real life shilling for generative AI.
TOKEN AI
The fictional AI company is inspired by a well known player in the industry, the ouroboros and the Human Centipede.
Immersive performance
To expand and contextualise the project, we created a fictional ‘launch event’ where LEX-9000 is introduced to the world by Token AI CEO Danny Celeste in a flurry of hyperbole, only to be derailed by anti-AI protesters. This conceit allowed us to explore both sides of the argument in more detail.
Page Against the Machine
An in-world protest group called Page Against the Machine oppose Token AI. We created a series of flyers with quotes from the WWAI workshop participants.
During the experince the hacker group highlight the pit falls of generative AI which we’ve collected on this webpage… https://wwai.info/story/
CREDITS
Concept & Production: Ray Interactive x Pip Thornton
LEX-9000 (Interactive Artwork)
Programming: Sam Healy
Design & Build: Brendan McCarthy
LEX Casing & 3D Printing: Vicente Riduara Harvey
Additional prop production: Gibbet fx
Page Against the Machine (Live Performance)
Script & Stage Direction: Clare Duffy (Civic Digits)
Actors: Phil & Sarah (Four of Swords)