LO-11: Women in Computational Design

The project I chose for this week is SOMEONE by Lauren Lee McCarthy. This project interested me since its focus was on reimagining home intelligence systems as actual people rather than AI. SOMEONE is primarily a human version of Amazon Alexa. For 2 months, the homes of 4 participants had custom-designed smart devices installed. A command center was installed in NYC where visitors were able to look into the participants’ homes through laptops and control their networked devices. Participants would call out for “someone” in which the visitors respond to their needs as Alexa does.

Lauren Lee McCarthy is an artist whose work focuses on social relationships in the era of surveillance, automatic, and algorithmic living. She received a BS in Computer Science and Art and Design from MIT and an MFA from UCLA. She is also the creator of p5.js!