Researcher/Designer Cristina Cochior and I, ran a 1 day workshop part of the Antiuniversity Now Festival and Young Blood Initiative's London exhibition 'The Authentic Fake' June 14-17.

See the full programme on www.antiuniversity.org

Where is the voice coming from?

With the arrival of digital assistants such as Alexa or Cortana in our domestic living environments, new questions arise. How do we relate to these agents whose voices fill our most intimate spaces? Are the conversational interfaces which are packaged as neutral - truly so?

Ran as a 3-hour discussion,  we looked at the history of computational agents, the socio-technological framework from which they have arisen, female representation within computer cultures and hyperemployment, all the while discussing current developments, and trying to challenge the master-slave narrative that is prevalent in much of today's technological discourse by imagining an alternative future.

Formatted in 2 parts, with presentations to start, given by Cristina Cochior and Lola de la Mata, followed by group discussions, collective writing using a real time text editing platform, and engaging with a pilot bot designed by Cristina for this workshop.

Cristina Cochior (RO/NL) is a researcher and designer working in the Netherlands. With an interest in automation practices, disruption of the interface and peer to machine knowledge production, her practice consists of research investigations into technical and bureaucratic knowledge sharing systems.

Lola de la Mata is a London based artist, musician, and composer whose practice focuses around the body, collaboration and listening. Lola’s work ranges from monotypes and graphic scores, to installations and compositions for movement, voice, electronics and classical instruments. Her current work has a focus on the use of female voices in AI bots, and service oriented machines.