I WANT AN AI FOR PRESIDENT
~~~work in progress~~~
“I Want an AI for President” is a new experimental live action role play (LARP) / immersive theater piece that dives into the complexities of workplace leadership and evolving anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence and the automation of labor. The work is currently conceived as a participatory performance for 4-25 audience members in which audience members perform as decision makers within a fictional organization.
The LARP challenges players to collectively develop strategies to self-determine the organization of their labor In the context of AI assisted rhetorical envisioning, democratic consensus making, reduction of administrative bloat.
Taking an innovative approach to content and form, the work immerses participants in a dynamic and interactive experience simulating a speculative labor structure in which managerial roles are substantially automated. Addressing automation’s potential impacts on leadership hierarchies, this work blends role-playing, strategic decision-making, and collaborative storytelling to collectively consider what hopes and fears surround technology and power.
The ethical issues raised by contemporary advances in AI are fundamentally human. Randian heroes, technocratic solutionism, and cargo cults are the most delirious spawn of a worldview predicated on the worship of “pioneering”, individual genius. How do the most de-hierarchical of us perhaps unconsciously desire our own subjectification by an (artificial) Leviathan strong man? By intertwining elements of speculative fiction with the lived realities of labor hierarchy, the LARP offers a unique exploration of the complex intersections between technology, work and human experience.
We believe LARP is a unique experimental setting for 1) interrogating these questions and 2) inviting participants to transform their preconceptions. By assuming a role different from their own, the LARP format invites players to set aside their positionality and to take a different perspective drawn from their own situated experiences. After the LARP, a debrief session harvests deeper conversations about human and more-than-human factors in collective organization.
Performances
August 2024. Co-Prosperity Sphere. DEMOCRAZY Counter-DNC programming. Bridgeport, Chicago IL.
February 2024. HAMMY WAMMY. Chicago. w. Doug Rosman.