ABSTRACT
Lauren McCarthy is an LA-based artist examining social relationships in the midst of surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living. She is the creator of p5.js, an open source programming language with over 1.5 million users, for learning creative expression through code online. Curator Jacina Leong interviews McCarthy, who talks about her play with automated, sensing technologies such as Amazon’s virtual home assistant Alexa in her project SOMEONE (2019), becoming a human version of Alexa in LAUREN (2018), and FOLLOWER (2018), a participatory service that provides a real-life follower for a day.
McCarthy contemplates how these works create visibility for the range of attitudes and levels of comfort that people have with contemporary surveillance technology.
