NON-HUMAN EXCELLENCE

As part of Sarah Elson 's LaunchPad Art’s 10-year anniversary, I had a great time interviewing Lawrence Lek, the London-based self-described simulation artist. Originally trained as an architect, he makes deconstructed films and narrative soundscapes that explore the territory between immersive video games and the art world.

Friends, as you already know, the imagination of urban strategists tends to wander a bit, so the themes of many of his films already seem familiar to us. Let’s be honest: who among us doesn’t already think about naughty and depressed self-driving cars (NOX), conversations between a City AI and its built-in AI therapist (BLACK CLOUD), and an AI that wants to be an artist (GEOMANCER)?

We started our conversation with a review of Lawrence's personal history, and how his regimented childhood in Singapore and contingent education in the UK may have sharpened the focus of his bicameral-minded characters. We ended up trying to distinguish between knowledge vs. self-knowledge, and what it is like to express ourselves through inherited language.? And then we all had pizza afterwards.