︎

Lauren Lee McCarthy


Info︎

LAUREN works
  1. LAUREN
  2. SOMEONE
  3. LAUREN Portable
  4. Exhibition: What can I do for you?
  5. Exhibition: You Can Say
  6. The Changing Room
  7. Waking Agents
  8. I.A. Suzie

Saliva works
  1. Exhibition: Bodily Autonomy (Saliva Bar)
  2. Saliva Retreat
  3. Saliva
  4. Are You the Perfect Specimen?
  5. Testing

Surrogate works
  1. Surrogate
  2. Exhibition: Data Relations
  3. Exhibition: Reproduction Otherwise
  4. Surrogate Performance
  5. Womb Walk

Autonomous works
  1. Voice In My Head
  2. Driverless
  3. Unlearning Language
  4. 24h HOST
  5. Seeing Voices

Muted works
  1. Exhibition: I Heard Talking Is Dangerous
  2. Muted
  3. I heard TALKING IS DANGEROUS
  4. Good Night
  5. Good Morning
  6. What do you want me to say?
  7. Sleepover
  8. Later Date
  9. Appreciate You

Other recent works
  1. Follower
  2. Social Turkers
  3. Vibe Check
  4. I’m glad you asked
  5. Autoreply
  6. pplkpr
  7. us+

Teaching & pedagogy
  1. p5.js
  2. Open Source Software Toolkits for the Arts Report
  3. Web We Want (W3C TPAC)
  4. Smarter Home
  5. Network Media
  6. Performing User
  7. Senior Capstone
  8. Disability, Design, and the Web
  9. Interactivity
  10. Conversation & Computation
  11. Social Hacking
  12. Critical APIs
  13. Computational Media
  14. Introduction to Programming for the Visual Arts (Free online course)

Archive
  1. Beyond the Breakdown
  2. How We Act Together
  3. Wake Words
  4. Friend Crawl
  5. Welcomer
  6. M/WITM
  7. The Changing Room: Brisbane
  8. Social Soul
  9. You Can Say
  10. Tools for Improved Social Interacting
  11. Inactive Account Manager
  12. Facebook Mood Manipulator
  13. LOVEINT
  14. SCRIPT

Mark

LAUREN


I attempt to become a human version of Amazon Alexa, a smart home intelligence for people in their own homes. The performance lasts up to a week. It begins with an installation of a series of custom designed networked smart devices (including cameras, microphones, switches, door locks, faucets, and other electronic devices). I then remotely watch over the person 24/7 and control all aspects of their home. I aim to be better than an AI because I can understand them as a person and anticipate their needs. The relationship that emerges falls in the ambiguous space between human-machine and human-human.

LAUREN is a meditation on the smart home, the tensions between intimacy vs privacy, convenience vs agency they present, and the role of human labor in the future of automation.



gallery space with a white bed, night stand and light above the bed header.gallery space, in the background there is a white bed, night stands, light above header, and in the foreground in a white stand there are four costum electronic devices.


exhibition space with five screens on the wall, a video playing on each one and a gray desk with a chair and lap in the corner.exhibition space with five screens on the wall, a video playing on each one and a gray desk with a chair and lap in the corner. a person has headphones on while viewing the video in the largest screen on the far left .


screenshot of the interface with camera view showing a person in her home cooking, on the top right there are three smaller views of the rest of their apartment. In the interface it shows the different lights in the house, all color coded, and all the switches of the house noting if they are on or off.
four electronic devices, camera with a cyan and magenta dye colored stand, a purple cylindrical speaker, a purple rectangular outlet and a white to purple gradient rectangular microphone with a lump next to one of the longer edges.
a white to purple gradient rectangular microphone with a lump next to one of the longer edges with a blurred hand about to grab the device.
a rectangular outlet with purple edges and a white surface where the outlet is and a blurred hand in front of this device.
a white circular camera with a cyan and magenta dye colored stand with a blurred hand about to grab it from the top.

rotating 360 gif of a living room with lauren talking on the tv.
rotating 360 gif of a bathroom while someone is putting facial cream.
wide angle image of a blond person with glasses looking at the camera in their kitchen.
wide angle image poc sitting on their couch while looking at the camera and holding a mug.
360 video of two people in their living room, one is looking out the window and the other person is sitting on the couch facing the camera.
gif of an wide image zooming through the living room of a person while they are in the background playing the bongos.
wide angle image of a person opening the door to their apartment.
wide angle image of a person in their living room staring at the couch
wide angle image of a person blow drying their hair
image of a person looking at their phone in a pitch black room
fish eyed image of a person sleeping
four custom made electronic devices (camera, speaker, microphone, outlet) on a stand in the corner of a gallery space with two windows, one on each wall, and four small images, two on each wall.
two small images of people who had LAUREN installed in their homes, these images are on a white wall with wooden frames.

Writing
Feeling at Home: Between Human and AI (Immerse)

Press
The Guardian, LA Times, Hyperallergic, Observer, Schirn Magazine, Fast Company, Creative Applications, Y Combinator, PSFK

LAUREN Testimonials film and 360 photography by David Leonard. This project was supported in part by Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab Programs, with a grant from Turner Broadcasting, and UCLA. Exhibition view at Haus der elektronischen Künste, 2019, Photo: Franz Wamhof. Exhibition view at Frankfurter Kunstverein, 2020, Photo: Norbert Miguletz, Copyright Frankfurter Kunstverein, Photo: Mareike Tocha,  Exhibition view at “House of Mirrors: Artificial Intelligence as Phantasm”, HMKV at Dortmunder U,  Photo: Tanja Kanazir, Exhibition view Drugo More

Next︎