User:Nadiners/ interview

Interview with Max

N: Hi Max, so we’re here today to find out what you are working on.

M: oh yeah, tough question. The tough ones are at the beginning. So I’m currently working with technology that’s called ‘Quick Type Keyboard’ and it was introduced in 2008 from Apple so it’s a while ago. so these are the three word proposals they give you when you write text messages like SMS or emails on your phone, and they predict three words. I’m building a machine which can write texts without your interaction and with these word proposals.

N: Could you explain to me why you are doing this?

M: I’m doing this because it’s very interesting at the moment, the developments to the Artificial Intelligence. There’s a lot of stuff going on, Google just introduced their new AI, and this type of AI in the quick type, the technology produces very creepy and very low tech sentences, so it’s on a very low level now.

N: What is your point of view on this? are you seeing it in a critical way or playing with it?

M: I think I’m more playing with it and it’s also that you can’t see inside the dictionary, so the dictionary which is built inside the phone, you can’t access it, and the phone learns from you and you will feed the AI, I will call it like this but it’s not a real AI, you’re feeding this dictionary and this Quick Type technology with your words every time you write. and you can’t see how you influence and expand this dictionary and I see that there is a way to make it more visible, with this work I will try to make it visible, what kind of words maybe it will learn or what kind of words you are using more often and yeah..

N: So you’re more interested in the language that the user uses or is influenced by its previous usage?

M: yeah, also most people use their phone everyday and have it for at least two years and they get a new one maybe... but they really feed it everyday and it becomes personal, maybe there’s a meta I in this phone. a mirror of my personal communication is inside this phone and it becomes a part of you, an extension of your body. and I want to see what this meta I is writing in my words

N: how do you see your work being exposed in a gallery?

M: I’m not sure yet but, there will be my phone with my personal dictionary inside and it will lay in this machine, and this machine is using this phone and maybe there’s another machine where people can put their own phones and then the two phones with the very personal dictionaries can talk to each other or can make conversation. and then let’s see what they talk about.

N : so the visitor of the gallery interacts with your machine?

M: yeah this for sure, maybe there’s a number and he can chat with Max. I’m not sure how it will end up now. I don’t have any idea.

N: Imagine you had this gallery space with your machine, it would just be a room. and that would be the only piece in it, how do you imagine the setting? M: Nadine this question is too hard, because I don’t know where I will end up.

N: just make something up

M: I don’t know, you know it’s really tough because... ok I will make something up. So the visitor won’t see my machine, he just sees a number that he can text and then he starts texting this number and then the machine is responding and the only thing he sees is the sign with a number on it. and it’s called “Text me if you can”

N: How do you think your machine will affect the viewer/user/visitor?

M: Often when I talk to people and tell them what I’m doing at the moment they don’t that they have such a technology or such a feature inside their phones, but you’re feeding it everyday and maybe not only the phone but the whole AI going on also what Apple is doing and everyday you are feeding this industry and maybe without knowing it. and after using this machine maybe you are more aware that every time you write something you’re writing something with your machine or your mobile phone you are also feeding the “big other”

N: What tools are you using?

M: I am using an arduino board, with several server motors. I have built this machine out of wood which was laser cut, and there is one main finger that contains two server motors, this is the finger that can touch each of the three words proposals, then there is an arduino board which is the controler of these servers, and there are more servers because you also need one to send the message and one which can click on a new message when it drops in, so this machine can act autonomically. and there is also a light sensor which recognizes when there is a new message, bthen you have this little black bar on the top of your phone. So I’m using arduino and programming.

N:Do you have any plans to continue along these line or develop this line of thought?

M: No.

N: Do you think there is a connection between your previous work and this work?

M: There might be a connection when it comes to making something visible that isn’t visible for people who are not aware when they use technology so... you know.. you get the point?

N: sure, but maybe explain for someone who doesn’t know your project?

M: So, for example in my previous work “mostly cloudy” I researched Data centers and the cloud and where it is, and where the data is stored when people use the cloud, but using the cloud is also an everyday thing because also when you add a new contact maybe on your phone it will be stored in Apple’s cloud without you noticing it. Ja so, in this work I tried to reconnect the place where data is stored to your phone because it is not anymore stored on your phone, it is stored on a server. Also when you use Siri, it is not processed on the phone it’s processed in the data center. ja.

N: Thank you Max, can’t wait to see your exhibition in CAC. M: oh ja, nice to meet you Nadine. ByeBye.