James Coupe Exercises in Passivity October 23 – December 31 2020 “I’m not a robot.” Check. Now click on all the boxes with traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, or shop fronts to prove it, while your answers help train an algorithm for a self-driving car. Unlike the Turing Test, which asks computers to convince us they […]

The city of Xiamen, China, contains a “painting village”, where thousands of artists create oil paintings to-order, typically converting photographs of weddings, families and pets into oil paintings. These artists are generally unseen, yet another example of invisible, instrumentalized human labor. In this work, ten artists from the painting village were approached via instapainting.com and, rather than copy other peoples’ photographs, were asked to paint self-portraits.

Manipulating memories: Archives, history and deepfakes Thursday, September 24th, 12:00-12:45 pm EST Francesca Panetta and Halsey Burgund (In Event of Moon Disaster) James Coupe (Thoughtworks Synthetic Media Resident 2020) Yvonne Ng (WITNESS) in conversation with William Uricchio (MIT) Deepfakery is a series of critical conversations exploring the intersection of satire, art, human rights, disinformation, and […]

SEASON 3, EPISODE 3: IDENTITY Are we as free as we strive to be? We have become increasingly data-driven identities – not only defined by our connectedness but targeted through our demographic profiles. Ghislaine Boddington @body_tech23, Creative Director of bodydataspace, introduces three artists with unique takes on identity. Artist James Coupe asks what profiling means […]

ThoughtWorks Arts are pleased to announce that the Simulacra & Similitude: Synthetic Media residency has been jointly awarded to two artists, Nouf Aljowaysir and James Coupe. Due to COVID-19, these residencies have been restructured to take place fully online. Our external partners for this residency are MIT Open Doc Lab, an academic center for innovative […]

Reimagining the Image: James Coupe with Joy Buolamwini April 28, 2020 (7PM – 8PM EST) Tickets: https://www.icp.org/events/reimagining-the-image-james-coupe-with-joy-buolamwini Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be held online. The program will take place via Zoom. Register to receive a link to join.​ British-born, Seattle-based artist James Coupe creates artworks that examine the often unseen and […]

General Intellect, exhibited as part of Eintritt in ein Lebewesen. Von der Sozialen Skulptur zum Plattformkapitalismus (On entering a living being. From Social Sculpture to Platform Capitalism) Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin 18 May – 16 August 2020 When Joseph Beuys coined the phrase of the “social sculpture” in the 1970s, he was not aware of the […]

Exhibition: Exhibited at International Center of Photography , New York City, January 23 – May 17, 2020 Materials: 5-channel video monitors, computers, iPads, cameras Description: This work uses a scene from Walter Hill’s 1979 cult movie The Warriors, which involves an an encounter between an all-female gang, the Lizzies, and three members of the Warriors […]

Exhibition: Exhibited at International Center of Photography , New York City, January 23 – May 17, 2020 Materials: 2-channel video monitors, computers, iPads, cameras Description: This work uses an excerpt from Walter Hill’s 1979 cult movie The Warriors, as the remaining Warriors embark on the final stretch of their subway journey to Coney Island, and […]

Exhibition: Exhibited at International Center of Photography , New York City, January 23 – May 17, 2020 Materials: 3-channel video projection, computers, iPads, cameras Description: “You’re standing right now with nine delegates from 100 gangs. And there’s over 100 more. That’s 20,000 hard-core members. Forty thousand, counting affiliates, and 20,000 more, not organized but ready […]

James Coupe Warriors International Center of Photography, New York City Jan 23rd – May 17th 2020 The International Center of Photography (ICP) will open its new integrated center on Manhattan’s Lower East Side with James Coupe: Warriors, one of four inaugural exhibitions. It will be on view at ICP at 79 Essex Street at Essex […]

James Coupe Exercises in Passivity July 31 – August 24th 2019 Opening reception: Wednesday, July 31, 5 – 8 pm “I’m not a robot.” Check. Now click on all the boxes with traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, or shop fronts to prove it, while your answers help train an algorithm for a self-driving car. Unlike the […]

Worker cage with screen that displays a multiple-choice personality test used by Cambridge Analytica to profile Facebook users, and by various corporations to evaluate potential and current employees.

Crowdworkers are hired to upload a one-minute video recording their activities. The only requirements are that they only upload a maximum of one video per hour, and a clock be shown on camera.

An AI algorithm analyzes and labels photographs used in a standard human empathy test. Each photograph’s metadata generates a machine-readable CAPTCHA matrix and a related query.

Covers of pop songs about being ignored that currently have zero plays on SoundCloud are played on a Karaoke Machine inside a soundproof room.