‘What do I know? I am just a machine?!’ is an augmented reality work asking questions about identity, repression, inequality and injustice, which focuses on the experience of a marginalised group – the machines. The machines talk to us! They emote! They banter! They are on the very cusp of consciousness! You are invited to enter into a relationship with them and explore the ever-changing modes of (augmented) reality. The future might be mildly confusing, occasionally profound and frequently hilarious!? But who knows?!
The work consists of a 3D audio enabled, augmented reality walk realised through a custom-made tablet/smartphone application. The app blends interactive digital elements – like visual overlays, 3D stereo sound and other sensory projections – into the real-world environment. By starting the app, the participant is invited to move freely around within the space at their own pace and will find themselves surrounded by autonomous, floating drone spheres. Whenever a user bumps into a floating drone sphere with his mobile device, the sphere tries to get out of the way and starts, in most cases, a short dialogue about autonomous machines, artificial intelligence, consciousness, identity politics, human nature, ethics, morality, society or its very own existence.