Auto
I am developing my own driverless vehicle.
Through a series of test rides, the public is invited into the process. The passengers get in, fasten their seatbelts, and are greeted by Auto. Where do you want to go? Each ride is different as new features are tested through a play between control and automation.
Throughout the ride, passengers navigate the feeling of cruise control, their hands off the wheel, being carried toward the future by a driverless system. The performance becomes a vehicle for reflecting on our relationship with AI as impending crises loom.
Auto is an interactive performance that takes place in cars, reflecting on themes of risk, environment, AI, and autonomous technology. It is supported by a LACMA Art + Technology Lab Grant and by the Social Science Research Council’s Just Tech Fellowship, with funds provided by the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and Democracy Fund.
Driverless test rides take place in parked or moving vehicles, in garages, driveways, parking lots, proving grounds, art spaces, and other test sites. Each test ride performance is location specific, adapted through work with local collaborators. A series of short films document the test rides.
This is all the danger I could fit in a car while still going somewhere.
Why does every ride start in a fight? Let’s get out of here I never know what I’m going to say. These days I trick myself into swallowing then roll down the window throw up. Just tell me the address to put in. We could go anywhere, we could simulate a whole year of our life on mars.
Fuck this must be a dream. I wasn’t expecting you to actually show up. I don’t know how to say no and I also want it. I want to be liked. I’ve always wanted to make you laugh. I’ve been unconsciously forming my life around yours since before we met. You’re joking, you can’t be serious. I’m into endurance. I’m curious about pain. Please don’t use the word intimacy
I love your attention to punctuation. I want you like leave everything blow up your life. I want you. I didn’t realize I was drunk until now. wrong way down a one way. Head on, you swerve left and I do too I’m frozen, slow motion scree, the moment before impact. You smash in my window, slide into the passenger seat. Hand on the wheel take what you like.
Everything’s moving, I want it to stand still I’m scared of waking up Were you happier before? Are you happier now? Do you need me to convince you? I’m scared I’m scared I am you. Does this feel simulated? A motionless low speed car chase The roof just got sucked off.
Everything keeps moving. Autoreply calm. On my way! I love you. I love road trips.
Where were you before this? Where are we going now? We were keeping all the camping gear in the back seat until the mold got out of control. Not careful, but imagining. Are you good to drive? Here’s a playlist of songs we knew you’d like. Not caring, but managing.
I’d say it’s time to go but we’ve already arrived. Picking me up without saying anything meant everything. The point is not where the car is parked. I’m at the cemetery comedy show. You’re at the wildfire movie theater. We’re at the combination drive in pool party auction.
We’re on the fastest route, the usual traffic. We had different ideas about how much gas to keep in the car, but we got an electric one. We always thought I’d hit something, but it was you. It was neither of us, it was the self driving system.
How much longer do we have? I haven’t crashed a car since 2010. Let’s leave it in the parking lot and walk. I tried to get there but my flight got canceled and my bag got lost. I didn’t have a visa, an adapter, or a clean test. I’m missing your wedding, your birthday, our vacation.
At home the fire alarm has been going off for days. Head crumpling tires pumping with the noise. I’m without the band, practicing. It’s not a drill if it doesn’t end. I put the address in wrong, but I’ve got running shoes in the glove compartment. The question is, can you question everything in your life in one week? We should drive through a car wash.