Newly Forgotten Technologies: Place Echoes

In Newly Forgotten Technologies: Place Echoes, five sound sculptures are installed across the LUGA Lab in Odendahl Park. These sculptures are formed from mounds of dirt scattered with discarded “smart” technologies such as broken smartphones and iPads, simulating a miniature outcropping of e-waste landscape jutting out of the city. Each mound is topped with a hacked Amazon Echo smart speaker, featuring a reprogrammed Alexa AI assistant.

Each assistant tells stories to passers-by: works of speculative fiction that “reveal the invisible” behind the monolithic surface of the Amazon Echo. Some stories explain why these devices were discarded; others uncover the human lives behind them — from AI content moderators in Kenya, to assembly plant workers in Taiwan, silicon miners in Brazil, and Amazon distribution centre employees in Ireland. The stories expose the relationships between AI and global systems of extraction, consumption, and waste.

Each hacked Echo reads dozens of these stories throughout the day, each one a work of speculative fiction about the past, present, and future of our civilisation’s relationship with technology and the planet. The day culminates in a performance at 7pm inside the LUGA Lab: Newly Forgotten Technologies: Five Echoes. https://luga.lu/en/experience/newly-forgotten-technologies-place-echoes/. a film with a live electronic score exploring the lifecycle and promises of AI from the perspective of five broken Amazon Echo speakers.