︎

Lauren McCarthy


Info︎

LAUREN works
  1. LAUREN
  2. SOMEONE
  3. LAUREN Portable
  4. Anyone Home?
  5. Exhibition: What can I do for you?
  6. Exhibition: You Can Say
  7. The Changing Room
  8. Waking Agents
  9. 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: Home Birth
  3. Exhibition: Passage
  4. Surrogate Performance
  5. Womb Walk
  6. Training Set

Autonomous works
  1. AUTO
  2. AUTO LA
  3. AUTO TUNE
  4. Voice In My Head
  5. HOST
  6. Unlearning Language
  7. Seeing Voices

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

🔒 Archive
  1. p5.js
  2. Open Source Software Toolkits for the Arts Report
  3. Web We Want (W3C TPAC)
  4. Follower
  5. Social Turkers
  6. Vibe Check
  7. I’m glad you asked
  8. Autoreply
  9. pplkpr
  10. us+
Mark

AUTO


AUTO is a new kind of driverless vehicle created in collaboration with the public through test rides. As a passenger, you don’t ride in AUTO, you become AUTO. Each ride begins with the question: Where are we going? As the vehicle accelerates, new features are tested in a play between automation and control.

The unexpected engine of the piece is collective singing, prompted karaoke-style through signage and sound. Learning the words they’re voicing only as they’re leaving their lips, the passengers experience a kind of embodied automation that is both absurd and provocative. Do we feel the anxiety of moving at high speed toward the future with nobody in the driver’s seat? Or is there a thrill in collectively letting go of control? 

AUTO is location specific, adapting in each city through public collaboration. Community workshops bring together local stakeholders to discuss AI, automation, surveillance, environment, and infrastructure. These conversations directly inform the design of new features for each iteration of the performance.




“For Zürich’s Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (KiöR) program, curated by HEK’s director Sabine Himmelsbach, McCarthy brought AUTO to Münsterhof. A compact self-driving Swiss PostBus stood in the square. Its bright yellow colour is instantly familiar in Switzerland, while its rounded, futuristic form connects it to PostBus’s real-world automated mobility projects, where autonomous shuttles are tested as part of the country’s future public transport infrastructure. Removed from those test routes and placed in the middle of the city, it became a point of entry into thinking about automation, public space and decision-making.”
︎ Read more on HEK Share

AUTO Münsterhof, Lauren Lee McCarthy, 2025
Commissioned by Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (KiöR)
Curated by Sabine Himmelsbach, Haus der Elektronischen Künste
Photography: Peter Baracchi

Artist: Lauren Lee McCarthy
Exhibition Design: Salmah Beydoun
Production Direction: Björn Alfers
Technical Production: Marco Kleiner
Studio and Software Assistance: Wylie Kasai
Sound Design: Tommy Martinez
Video Performers: Berit Gilma, Chelly Jin
Cinematography: Gabriel Noguez
Writing Contribution: Stalgia Grigg
Narrative Design Contribution: Nick Fortugno
Software Contribution: Corbin Ordel
AUTO TUNE created in collaboration with Casey Reas