Nomination
kyriakigoni.com/projects/not-allowed-for-algorithmic-audiences
Video: vimeo.com/manage/videos/604759242
A big number of audiences online nowadays is mainly algorithms. Algorithms are trained on the auditory information that is produced and uploaded by humans. In Not allowed for algorithmic audiences, a digital assistant situated in an Athenian apartment exhibits an odd behavior. They borrow an avatar and for seven consecutive days before they end up in an e-waste dump, they hold seven monologues introducing themselves and their skills, their ancestors, their anatomy and their origins, and talking about voice and its significance. They reveal data on the listening infrastructures as well as the bias inherent in their programming. Just before they reach the end of their monologues, in a final effort to reconcile humans and machines, they share tips with humans on how they can manage…not to be heard by algorithms.
The feminist philosopher Rosi Braidotti describes voice as “a unique audio footprint of a human’s soul”. Speaking is an integral part of everyone’s individual identity, it carries the past and the present. In recent years the usage of voice UIs has been on the rise. The number of users of voice assistants, especially smartphones and smart speakers, is increasing among all age groups. What are these voice assistants to us? Buddies, servants, or supervisors spying on voice biometrics?
Credits
This artwork was developed within the framework of the Ars Electronica ArtScience Residency enabled by Art Collection Deutsche Telekom in partnership with Johannes Kepler University Linz. Part of the Art Collection Telekom.
Biography
Kyriaki Goni (GR) is an awarded multimedia artist. Her artistic practice explores the political, affective, and environmental aspects of technology—connecting the local with the planetary, the fictional with the scientific. She focuses on extractivism, surveillance, human and other than human relations, distributed networks, and infrastructures. Her work is featured in solo and group shows and held in institutional and private collections. She has a BA in Fine Arts, an MA in Digital Arts (MA), and a BA and an MSc in Social and Cultural Anthropology.
kyriakigoni.com