"Feeling completely disconnected, I created I heard TALKING IS DANGEROUS trying to break through. Showing up on doorsteps, I deliver a monologue via phone screen and text-to-speech. I explain that I just heard masks and six feet are not safe enough. They’ve recommended we stop talking to each other, they say talking is dangerous. So I made an alternative. Is there really safety in distance?

I invite each person to visit a URL on their phone to continue the conversation. We proceed, discussing danger, safety, the future. That feeling of never knowing what is safe. Who you can safely engage with. How we find connection. Wanting more."

Photography by Kat Kaye. Special thanks to Evelyn Masso, Leah Wardel, Samantha Culp, Joel Kelly, David Leonard, Qianqian Ye, Harvey Moon.

In Lauren Lee McCarthy's artistic practice, social relationships are examined amongst surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living. Fascinated by the ways in which we interact with algorithms and one another, McCarthy contemplates the effects of glitches within social and technological structures.

Exploring ideas of self-awareness and control, McCarthy's performances challenge both visitors and the artist to engage in mutual risk taking. Here, software, electronics, internet, film, photography, and installation combine in scenarios where one can buy a lifetime of goodnight texts, or a real life “follower” for a day.

McCarthy has received grants and residencies from Creative Capital, United States Artists, LACMA, Sundance New Frontier, Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, Autodesk, and Ars Electronica. Her work SOMEONE was awarded the Ars Electronica Golden Nica and the Japan Media Arts Social Impact Award, and her work LAUREN was awarded the IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction. Lauren's work has been exhibited internationally, at places such as the Barbican Centre, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Haus der Elektronischen Künste, SIGGRAPH, Onassis Cultural Center, IDFA DocLab, Science Gallery Dublin, Seoul Museum of Art, and the Japan Media Arts Festival.

Lauren is also the creator of p5.js, an open-source art and education platform that prioritises access and diversity in learning to code, with over 1.5 million users. She expands on this work in her role on the Board of Directors for the Processing Foundation, whose mission is to serve those who have historically not had access to the fields of technology, code, and art in learning software and visual literacy. Lauren is an Associate Professor at UCLA Design Media Arts. She holds an MFA from UCLA and a BS Computer Science and BS Art and Design from MIT.