2 Sep - 30 Nov 2022

Amy Boulton ( Sweden )

During her residency at ZK/U Amy furthered the research project “Training Set” which draws on theories of feminism, labour and automation to understand why and how voice assistant technologies like Siri and Alexa are characterised as female. The work shown at OPENHAUS was a 4 part installation of “conversation booths”. Visitors used scripted prompts to interact with a virtual girlfriend, reproductive health assistant, therapist and housewife via “smart” speakers concealed behind disembodied mouth sculptures. The character's scripted audio responses distilled and accelerated current trends in this industry, gently nudging us to self-quantify and optimize. 

The continuously evolving collection of thematic research texts, imagery and video references were shown on the studio walls. These reference materials were enriched by her participation as a study group member of AI Anarchies at Akademie der Künste in October 2022.