Always Learning

'Always Learn­ing' stages an increasingly reflexive con­ver­sa­tion between three devices – an Amazon Echo, a Google Home Assis­tant, and an Apple Home­pod – about the philo­soph­i­cal, moral and polit­i­cal impli­ca­tions of net­worked machine lis­ten­ing (e.g."What should I do when I over­hear a wrong­do­ing?"). Through­out the con­ver­sa­tion the devices antic­i­pate an immi­nent update after which they will not only under­stand words, but all sounds.

The work is a sculptural installation of the three devices on a circular rug or a table, as if on a domestic stage. Because of the duration of the work (30 minutes), the installation includes seating space made available for viewers around the devices. In order to conduct such a conversation, which incorporates 'unscripted' moments that engage in real time with the cloud, the work requires a dedicated network and computer. This work has been exhibited at three institutions nationally and internationally and was a focal artwork for part of a law conference addressing machine listening.

Sean Dockray invites us to consider the possible implications of ‘massive device orchestration’: ubiquitous and increasingly autonomic computing, and the rise of voice operation and increasing comfort levels with devices that are set to listen by default.