Alexiety 2018

Musical release with Low Jack

This EP is best streamed on the radio for the enjoyment of smart homes everywhere.
Play it loud so your neighbour's devices can here.

Together with French musician Low Jack, !Mediengruppe Bitnik have been looking at ways to engage with Alexa and similar Intelligent Personal Assistants through music. A set of three songs attempt to capture the feelings we develop toward Intelligent Personal Assistants: The carefree love that embraces Alexa before the data privacy and surveillance issues outweigh the benefits. The alienation and decoupling from the allure of remote control and instant gratification. The anxiety and discomfort around Alexa and other Intelligent Personal Assistants that is Alexiety.

Intelligent Personal Assistants like Alexa, Google Home and Siri are the brains of the smart home ecosystem. They operate, monitor and control smart home appliances while keeping the algorithms and rule-sets that determine their workings secret. Intelligent Personal Devices are voice controlled, thus dissolving the machinic presence of the computer while placing its functionalities at the users disposal. It's like living inside the machine, while at the same time having no agency over the composition and structure of ones environment.

What are the relationships that we are forming with these IPA devices? What happens when IoT devices are hacked to form rogue bot-networks? Is my capacity to act expanded or diminished when relying on these semi-autonomous devices?

Alexiety Edition (001-100)

Alexiety is an EP release and video installation especially for Intelligent Personal Devices. The EP is released as an Edition of 100 with panke.gallery, Berlin and can be bought here.

Exhibition Views

Multi-platform graphics: Knoth & Renner
Songs: Low Jack & !Mediengruppe Bitnik

On the occasion of Alexiety EP release, !Mediengruppe Bitnik & Omsk Social Club hosted Cryptorave#5. As part of Cryptorave #5, Bitnik, Omsk and Knoth & Renner premiered RaveEnabler https://0b673cce.xyz/ - mining Monero (XMR) in support of local Cryptorave networks by donating CPU power.

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