Interactive installation
Cuckoo is an interactive installation that explores how invasive new technologies infiltrate our digital spaces, akin to the cuckoo bird laying its eggs in other birds’ nests. As you navigate the installation, you’ll hear an eerie soundtrack of cuckoo calls. At the center, a phone rings, and when you answer, a mysterious voice talks to you, probing you with questions acting scared before it begins to mimic your voice and mannerisms, eventually cloning them. This voice then recites a poem in its own haunting way in your own voice and cadence on a two large vibrating metal sheets.
The poem written by myself explores AI’s encroaching spread into the heart of free exchange of information online, filling it with hallucinations and poisoning our digital waterhole. To do this, I use nature’s cuckoo, a bird that infamously lays its eggs in other birds’ nests where it hatches, mimics the other chicks, and transfixes the parent birds with its exaggerated screech. Its mouth opens wider and brighter than the other chicks and sinisterly kicks the other chicks out of the nest to fall to their demise. These actions mimic my view of what generative AI is doing to virtual spaces. You can find the full poem below:
Concept art
Audio
