Übergordnete Werke und Veranstaltungen

Play Station & Sinofuturism (1839–2046 AD)

DE 2016

In his speculative video installations and virtual reality applications, the artist Lawrence Lek examines the entanglement between digital worlds and our perception of human agency. The exhibition of the 2018 Werkleitz Festival features two video works by Lek: Play Station and Sinofuturism (1839–2046 AD). The sci-fi video essay Sinofuturism draws parallels between the representation of artificial intelligence and China in popular media and portrayals of AI which reflect hopes and fears about the geopolitical rise of China. In seven chapters—Computing, Copying, Gaming, Studying, Addiction, Labor and Gambling—stereotypes of Chinese life are both critically and ironically scrutinized. The multi-part video project Play Station also explores the effects of artificial intelligence, yet questions how we will work in the future once robots make human manual labor obsolete. Here Lek transfers palpable contemporary fears into a colorful, fully automated playful paradise where free time takes the place of work. Loosely based on the employment worlds of Google and other Silicon Valley companies, for Play Station Lek has invented the fictional automation start-up company Farsight, which recruits workers by offering them—in an advertising video—“funemployment forever.” “Who needs a work-life balance, when it’s so much fun?”

Play Station, 2017
2 channel video installation, HD Video, 2:40 min and 5:05 min

Sinofuturism (1839–2046 AD), 2016
Full HD Video, 60:00 min

Play Station & Sinofuturism (1839–2046 AD)

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