How digital artists are questioning artificial intelligence
Steve Goodman is best known for his work DJing as Kode9 and running the Hyperdub record label, one of the pioneering forces of UK bass culture and dubstep since 2004. Through releases by Kode9 & The Spaceape, and Burial, Hyperdub captured a sound that embodied the high-pressure claustrophobia and hyper-surveillance of urban environments in the 21st Century. Seen through this dystopian lens, people are erased from the landscape and suppressed by barely perceptible sonic frequencies, and anonymous technological forces of capitalism, yet humanity bleeds through the cracks via fragments of pirate radio signals and disembodied voices.
Nøtel is a new site-specific artwork created by Lawrence Lek and Kode9, which extends some of these themes. Situated in a newly regenerated site on London City Island, the work presents a fictional showroom for a hotel of the future, which is governed through artificial intelligence (A.I.). As you enter the building, automated sales commentaries echo across the room via out-of-phase audio loops emitting from an array of loudspeakers. Nested around a glowing green zero structure, the Nøtel showroom provides several audio-visual systems including screens and virtual reality headsets, which allow you to explore the hotel via a synthetic 3D simulation. Disembodied voices explain to you how your every need will be perfectly met through the A.I. capabilities of the hotel, which will reduce unwanted human interactions to zero.
The cite seems mainly empty at the moment, with vacant or unfinished properties, and some construction boards with promotional graphics featuring Photoshopped people living out idyllic lives in the imagined bustling complex. The designs tease the possibility to remove yourself from whatever real bit of London you live in, and move to a more artificial, streamlined, seductive and gentrified one. Nøtel encapsulates this vibe, which is already there, but turns the clock forward just a little, accentuating the dystopian qualities of the site.
Nøtel questions our human relationship with technology and the capitalist systems in which we are embedded. A.I. is significant in this equation because it represents a step toward an existence in which computational processes are presumed sufficiently capable of making important choices on our behalf, and are empowered to do so. Of course, A.I. could be extremely useful for our daily lives; for instance, it has been proposed to have significant benefits in healthcare.
