"Exhausted by Zoom calls, I created a digital clone of my voice to replace me. This voice allows me to puppet myself, using it to say all the things I hadn't previously been able to embody. I feel a sense of power owning the data of my own voice. I am taking it back from the tech companies, constantly collecting my conversations, sampling and analyzing and archiving my speech for future use yet unknown. Instead, I offer the control of my voice to others. Upon collecting and visiting the work, you are asked by my voice, “What do you want me to say?” However you reply, my voice responds by speaking your own words back to you. Then it asks again, “What do you want me to say?” This work considers vulnerability, ownership, and authenticity in a time of rapidly advancing virtual reality. As I open access to my voice, I reflect on the ways femme voiced virtual assistants are commanded and controlled by their users and their developers. And the ways we can feel heard and (mis)understood by those that listen."

Work available on Feral File

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.