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.
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.