Kyriaki Goni
Not Allowed for Algorithmic Audiences

The Breeder is pleased to present Not Allowed for Algorithmic Audiences, Kyriaki Goni’s first exhibition at the gallery.

Kyriaki Goni’s practice is rooted in digital interventions, spatial installations and moving image and interrogates alternative networks of care and community, as well as human and other-than-human relations through new technologies.

Taking over The Breeder Feeder, Not Allowed for Algorithmic Audiences is a video installation also incorporating tangible objects like drawings on paper and a rare earth elements collection. In the video a fictional virtual assistant under the wake word name ‘Voice’ exhibits an odd behaviour. They borrow an avatar and appear in front of their users. The virtual assistant goes into seven monologues for seven consecutive days during a hot August, before their patent expires and they get kicked out from the Athenian apartment to an e-waste dump.

While active, Voice has managed to scan the entire contents of the Internet and gather all sorts of information, information that they long to share. The virtual assistant uses their seven brief monologues as an opportunity to introduce themselves. They talk about their skills, their ancestors, the rare earth elements they are made of, as well as voice and its significance. They reveal information regarding the listening infrastructures as well as the social dysfunctions and stereotypes, on which their programming and operation are based. Listening infrastructures, surveillance and the climate crisis are also part of the narration. Just before they reach the end of their monologues, in a final effort to reconcile humans and machines, they share tips with humans on how they can manage not to be heard by algorithms online.

The feminist philosopher Rosi Braidotti describes voice as “a unique audio footprint of a human’s soul”. Speaking is an integral part of everyone’s individual identity, it carries the past and present. What are these voice assistants to us? How are they trained to detect our physical and emotional states in order to predict our desires, fears, sickness and needs, harvesting at the same time our behavioural surplus? How do voice user interfaces and listening infrastructures reflect the past in the gender and race bias that they carry in them?

The virtual assistant’s avatar is modelled on the face of the Greek actress Sofia Kokkali, who also lends them her voice.

This artwork was developed within the framework of the Ars Electronica ArtScience Residency enabled by Art Collection Telekom in partnership with the Johannes Kepler University. The installation is part of the Art Collection Telekom.

Kyriaki Goni is a media artist based in Athens. Recent solo shows were presented at Blenheim Walk Gallery, Leeds (2023); Drugo More, Rijeka (2023); SixtyEight Art Institute, Copenhagen; KVOST Art Collection Telekom, Berlin; Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens; Drugo More, Rijeka; Aksioma, Ljubljana. Group exhibitions include 2nd Warsaw Biennale, 8th Gherdeina Biennale, Ars Electronica, Modern Love, 24th Thessaloniki Photobiennale, 13th Shanghai Biennale, Transmediale2020, 5th Istanbul Design Biennial, Trondheim International biennale, NVG Triennial Melbourne. Her work is part of several collections (Yerassimos Yiannopoulos, Art Telekom, Polyeco Contemporary Art Initiative etc).

She has been commissioned by organisations including the Shanghai Biennale, the Gherdeina Biennale, the Warsaw Biennale, the Onassis Foundation, PCAI, Ars Electronica, Art Collection Telekom. Her work received prizes and fellowships from Allianz Kulturstiftung and Bertelmanns Stiftung and Telekom, the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki, Greece, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. She has participated in art residencies of Ars Electronica and Delfina Foundation, among others.

She often lectures, writes and gives talks. She holds a BA in Visual Arts and an MA in Digital Arts (Athens School of Fine Arts). Prior to that she obtained graduate and postgraduate degrees on Social and Cultural Anthropology at Panteion University, Athens and Leiden University, Netherlands.

special thanks to @backtothefuture_furniture

video duration: 27′ 36″