Beyond (the sea and) the uncanny valleys and American smiles

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as part of Let’s Play! a collaboration of the Weibel Institute and Experimental Game Cultures for Angewandte Festival Beyond (the sea and) the uncanny valleys and American smiles is a single-player journalling Role Playing Game (RPG) by Cyprus-baed Finnish-Cypriot artist and researcher Alexia Achilleos. It explores what the rest of the world looks like under the colonial gaze of Silicon Valley’s AI. Join us to playtest the game together! Set in a world where Western AI companies have colonised new territories, you take on the role of a solitary cartographer. Your task is to navigate and document the changing landscapes of your hometown’s colonisation. Through interactions with various AI systems, you wander across the land and sketch a map of your experiences — the places you see, the inhabitants you meet, and your reflections. Be wary of colonial agents serving Big Tech AI companies! Approach them with caution and scrutinise their answers. Alexia Achilleos will present the game, followed by a play session. Please bring a laptop or device for the session, as GenAI platforms will be used in the game. No previous knowledge of AI is required to play the game. Making an account with Microsoft Copilot is recommended, while other GenAI platforms can also be used. Please register for the workshop via weibel.institute@uni-ak.ac.at

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