LO 08: The Creative Practice of an Individual

Lauren McCarthy, as known as the creator of p5.js, is an artist based in Los Angeles exploring how, in today’s society, subjects of surveillance, automation, and network culture influence our social relations. McCarthy claims that human beings are encouraged to interact with algorithms everyday, further critiquing the tensions between social and technological systems, as well as intimacy and privacy. In particular, I found her style of generating art very phenomenal, especially in her work “LAUREN”, with her attempt to perform as a human version of smart home intelligence Amazon Alexa, and later remotely monitoring over the people in their residences to explore the ambiguous relationship between human and machine. In her works, McCarthy employs many of today’s networked electronic smart devices, such as televisions, computers, faucets, and cameras, in which conveys strange, uncanny feelings by intentionally showing the perspective of a camera with artificial intelligence, when a person is being “watched” 24/7 even at home. Home is where everyone should feel the most comfort, safe, and secure; yet, McCarthy contradicts this claim by presenting us with discomfort and unease. I absolutely admire how she looks at our everyday commonplaceness into such intriguing mismatch relationship we experience using today’s technology.

Reference: https://lauren-mccarthy.com/ & https://lauren-mccarthy.com/LAUREN