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Robot Mak Mak (2019)
HDV 1:45
2019

Digital video with dual channel video

1'45"

Dimensions variable

Mak’s investigation of simulation’s capacity for mimesis is continued in the video work Robot Mak Mak (2019), in which the artist simulates herself. Utilizing full body image synthesis technology, Mak superimposes her facial expressions onto online footage of robot Sophia, an AI machine designed to act and look as human as possible. By reversing the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence technology, in which AI predominantly poses as the impersonator, the artist raises questions regarding our willingness to be subsumed under alternative forms of being and the value of existing as a robot vis-à-vis a human. She questions whether looking or acting robot-like affords her more “realness” than being completely human.