Artificial Intelligence

Attracted by a hypnotic swirling spiral, the viewer touches the screen and is then asked to insert a coin without any inkling as to what it might purchase. Artificial Intelligence (2018) is a machine that dispenses wisdom in return for a 10-cent investment. A machine that might normally be associated with something straightforward, like a ticket, has been retooled to bring a brief dose of ambiguity into the daily urban routine. Assuming the form of a conventional touch-screen kiosk, the piece offers a moment of pause to consider the fragility and vanity of our daily lives.

The original installation showed a short meditation on time, impermanence, and loss. Spanning from the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 to the shortage of sausages in the German Democratic Republic to the Mahabharata, it offers an unusual perspective on the rise and fall of human civilisation through the prism of the chaos of 20th-century Europe. Furthermore, the machine can be infused with the whole Cinematic Oeuvre of Fishbone and offers a wider variety of films to choose from.

This work was realised within the framework of the European Media Art Platforms (EMAP) programme at Werkleitz (DE) with support of the Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union.