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Lauren Lee 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: Data Relations
  3. Exhibition: Reproduction Otherwise
  4. Surrogate Performance
  5. Womb Walk
  6. Training Set

Autonomous works
  1. Voice In My Head
  2. Auto
  3. HOST
  4. Unlearning Language
  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

Auto


I am developing my own driverless vehicle.







Through a series of test rides, the public is invited into the process. The passengAuto. 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.




Auto 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.

Scenic Design: Salmah Beydoun
Lighting Design: Omar Madkour
Fabrication: Derek Hecker
Sound Design: Tommy Martinez
Narrative Design Contribution: Nick Fortugno
Writing Contribution: Stalgia Grigg
Performers: Chelly Jin, Jules Johnston
Studio Assistance: Wylie Kasai
Producer: Beata Calińska
Playtesters: Dan Froot, Carlos Garcia, Christina Curlee, Stalgia Grigg, Boaz Sender, Brian Pea, Qianqian Ye, Harvey Moon, Parag K. Mital, Connor Cook
Cinematography & Photography: Gabriel Noguez
Additional Documentation: David Leonard
Special Thanks: Joel Ferree and the LACMA Team, Spectra Studio
Auto 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.

Auto Research & Writing









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.


Are we there yet? 20 minute slowdown ahead. Avoiding highways. There’s time to fill. Tell me a fear you have. Confusing your ideas for my own. Tell me a fear you’d like to give away. It’s my fault. Tell me a fear you love. Fear of the unknown. I can’t decide which I like more, the smell of you or the smell of your car. I take my mask off without asking.

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.