{"id":2515,"date":"2019-08-07T02:37:40","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T09:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/?page_id=2515"},"modified":"2019-08-07T02:38:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T09:38:38","slug":"uw-daily","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/?page_id=2515","title":{"rendered":"UW Daily review of Exercises in Passivity<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coupe\u2019s \u2018Exercises in Passivity\u2019 explores our changing relationship with technology at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery<\/strong>
\nby Natalie Rand
\nThe UW Daily, Aug 5, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n

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I am not a robot (2019): this metal cage contains a screen displaying questions designed by Cambridge Analytica to profile Facebook users and workers of corporations. Here, it asks a user the accuracy of the statement “I am always on time.”<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

A paid service to livestream your daily prayers. A karaoke booth with songs about being ignored with zero plays on SoundCloud. A CAPTCHA asking you to \u201cselect all images that make you afraid.\u201d As technology advances and becomes even more integral to our daily lives, what will it mean in relation to the most fundamental elements of our humanity?<\/p>\n

Seattle-based artist and DXARTS associate professor James Coupe explores these questions in his exhibition \u201cExercises in Passivity,\u201d showing at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery Aug. 1 to 24.<\/p>\n

Fitting for a university in Seattle, the exhibition makes a distinctive usage of Amazon paraphernalia, such as the \u201cworker cage\u201d and Mechanical Turk, to craft its message. Three Echo Dots mounted into the wall (the \u201cAlexa, Stop\u201d exhibit), laugh at random intervals, creating an uneasy feeling of having your ever-increasingly inferior humanity mocked by technology as you observe the other five exhibits.<\/p>\n

Walking through the gallery, one gathers a sense of how advances in technology contribute to humanity\u2019s increasing isolation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a robot\u201d features an Amazon worker cage with a screen inside displaying multiple-choice personality test questions used by Cambridge to profile Facebook users, creating a sense of being literally and metaphorically \u201cboxed in\u201d by technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Zero Plays (2019): This single-person karaoke room heightens the emotion of already lonely music<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cZero Plays\u201d is a karaoke booth that plays songs from SoundCloud with zero plays that are about being ignored. Its unfinished wooden exterior, according to Coupe, was meant to resemble the construction work of micro-apartments in Seattle due to the influx of Amazon workers, symbolizing how advancement has isolated people.<\/p>\n

\u201cExercises in Passivity\u201d also explores the changing meaning of what it means to be human.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet Us Pray\u201d and \u201cTime Clock\u201d are screens displaying Amazon Mechanical Turk \u201ccrowdworkers\u201d livestreaming everyday activities like praying, eating, and sitting around. According to Amazon\u2019s website, \u201cWhile computing technology continues to improve, there are still many things that people can do much more effectively than computers.\u201d However, Coupe\u2019s exhibit imagines a future where, as AI becomes smarter and more jobs are automated, people are forced to engage in the most fundamentally human activities for money.<\/p>\n

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Let Us Pray (2019): A box designed to collect coins that are later used to hire crowdworkers to record themselves engaging in spiritual practices.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cCompletely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart\u201d also explores this theme, and it is arguably the most compelling exhibit of all.<\/p>\n

Every time we take a CAPTCHA test, not only are we verifying that we are human, but we are actually also training AI to recognize the images it asks us to recognize. For example, when you select all images of a stop sign, you are also inadvertently training the computer to recognize what a stop sign looks like. This creates a feedback loop where the more we try to prove our humanity, the harder it becomes to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cCAPTCHA\u201d captures the disturbing implications of this by imagining these CAPTCHA questions as trying to understand the deepest roots of human nature. A machine running on AI using Google\u2019s CAPTCHA algorithm displays questions on a screen and automatically selects an answer. However, instead of asking to select all images of cars or bicycles, the AI asks questions such as \u201cselect all images with people that are egotistical\u201d or \u201cselect all images that make you afraid\u201d and selects from a variety of images ranging from stock-photo perfect to obscenely violent.<\/p>\n

From isolation to entrapment to the changing definition of humanity, \u201cExercises in Passivity\u201d examines how technology is shaping our destiny as humans. It\u2019s a thought-provoking journey into the uncanny valley of the future that you won\u2019t want to miss.<\/p>\n

Reach writer Natalie Rand at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @n_rand_<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

Coupe\u2019s \u2018Exercises in Passivity\u2019 explores our changing relationship with technology at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery by Natalie Rand The UW Daily, Aug 5, 2019 A paid service to livestream your daily prayers. A karaoke booth with songs about being ignored with zero plays on SoundCloud. A CAPTCHA asking you to \u201cselect all images that make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2515","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2515"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2545,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2515\/revisions\/2545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}