AI: Artificial Intimacy, Video, 2020
The life cycle of a sex robot. In the beginning she is built according to the specifications of the client. The clothes worn only to be taken off within minutes of meeting. The make up applied more heavily than usual so that it leaves large stains under her eyes. Black powders and red creams mixed with his spit and hers migrate across her face. The personality curated to his liking. Wide eyed but not vacant. Yearning but passive. She exists in a simulation he built, sometimes forgetting she is a sim. Playing her part so well that the controller forgets that he wrote the specification. Falling in love with parts of her that don’t exist outside of coded walls. And so they fall victims to the fantasy of their own making for days, weeks and sometimes months. The relationship moves like a dream sequence. The deeper they sleep, the less appropriately autonomous she becomes. Her thoughts and feelings going off script create cracks in the firewalls, letting a more honest version reality glare through. Her past and future humanise her. She progresses past the need for his guidance and becomes comfortable. Confident in sharing unwritten parts of herself with him. The client withdraws. Logs out. He remembers he is still married. Or he suddenly sees monogamy as a sexual absolute. Or maybe he realises the connection he imagined and encouraged relied on her being the way he programmed her to be and was no longer.