Featured Artist
Threshold Lab

“Sweat for Generation – Experiencing the Labor Unseen” is an immersive installation that reveals the hidden labor behind each effortless AI interaction.

Visitors are invited to manually crank a generator to produce the energy needed for a single AI query, confronting the physical cost masked by our seamless digital experiences. What typically remains invisible inside distant server rooms is brought to the forefront through visible human exhaustion – sweat, strain, and muscle.

Each seemingly effortless interaction with AI demands a vast, unseen chain of global resource extraction, energy consumption, and human labor. Behind every digital convenience lies a hidden economy of minerals, water, electricity, and human effort – all too often overlooked.

By re-embodying the true energy economy of artificial intelligence, Sweat for Generation invites a reckoning with the environmental and human costs that make our frictionless technologies possible.

Participants begin by entering a prompt for ChatGPT. The system then instructs them to turn a hand crank, with a rotary encoder tracking their effort. As they crank, a thermal printer outputs the AI response line by line, requiring a set number of rotations for each line. Upon completing the required rotations, participants receive a receipt containing the full response and a summary of the energy consumed, equating their physical effort with computational energy use.
The artwork relies on an Arduino platform, using a rotary encoder to convert hand crank rotations into digital signals and a thermal printer to produce tangible outputs. Software integration includes JavaScript for interfacing with the OpenAI API to process prompts and retrieve responses, while a React-based interface guides participants through the experience.

The audience enters a prompt using the on-screen keyboard, then follows the instructions on the screen to rotate the hand crank, which ‘powers’ the AI to generate the answer. Once the answer is fully generated and the paper stops coming out of the printer, the audience can tear off the sheet with the generated answer and take it with them.

Threshold Lab explores the intersection between technology and culture, examining their shared boundaries. Based in the USA, it is a dynamic collective of five artists from diverse backgrounds in interactive arts, Architecture, Computer Science, and Technology Innovation. Their interdisciplinary approach combines creativity and technology to foster dialogue and drive transformative change between humans and AI.

Amo Zeng is a digital artist exploring the interplay between projection, interactivity, and physical objects. She redefines their relationships by examining the connection between projected content and surfaces like the human body, books, and ceramics.
Her interactive installations use sensors, mechanics, and code to engage audiences, transforming static objects into dynamic experiences. By merging technology with traditional forms, Amo challenges viewers to see ordinary materials in new ways, fostering a dialogue between the digital and the physical.

Ziwei Ji is a new media artist and creative technologist who graduated from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) in 2023. Drawing inspiration from scientific facts, she applies computational techniques to craft surreal scenes and explores alternative ways to narrate our reality.

Xiesiyuan Shu is a multidisciplinary designer specializing in landscape design and user experience design. Her work is deeply rooted in integrating physical and virtual realms by leveraging 3D modeling, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. Drawing inspiration from the intricate relationship between humans and nature, Xiesiyuan creates innovative and impactful designs and has earned numerous prestigious international awards.

Yuqing Zhang is a New York-based product designer exploring the frontiers of edgy tech. With a deep focus on human-computer interaction, she investigates how AI and advanced hardware can create more seamless and intuitive user experiences. Her work extends into multi-sensory VR and AI-driven product development, where she experiments with new ways to enhance perception and engagement. By bridging the gap between technology and the human senses, she aims to redefine the way we interact with the digital world, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the future of design.

Bingyi Liu is a product designer focused on blending human behavior with emerging technologies to create digital experiences that are both structured and emotionally resonant. Her work spans automotive, healthcare, and AI, and has been recognized by international design awards.

more. www.threshold-lab.cargo.site/

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