Paint the Town Red
Paint the Town Red is a reflective journey into the intricacies of language, the advances in AI, and the profound human connection that underpins communication. This site-specific installation occupies the large glass public entrance of the Burghof Lorrach arts centre which sits on the border between Switzerland and France. The glass has been covered in red paint and sixteen small speakers are amplifying low hums from inside the space. The sounds are created entirely from AI-generated neural voices, sourced from publicly accessible translation sites. Resonating from within the glass, the physical qualities of the space enhance the work’s impact.
The title Paint the Town Red derives from a common English phrase signifying celebration and enjoyment. The installation literalises this phrase, imagining a scenario where buildings are painted red. This playful interpretation underscores the potential pitfalls of literal translations and the more serious consequences that could arise from such errors. As of today, all free public accessible translation platforms still translate this sentence wrongly.
By leveraging neural machine translation software, the installation challenges visitors to reflect on their relationship with online translation and AI voices, questioning the boundaries between the real and the artificial, the accurate and the flawed. It prompts contemplation on the consequences when AI translation lacks cultural context.
Featured artificial voices: Afrikaans / Bulgarian / Chinese / Czech / Dutch/ English / French/ French Canadian / Malayalam / Maltese/ Polish / Russian / Sinhala / Slovak / Slovenian / Spanish/ Telugu /Turkish / Ukrainian / Urdu / Vietnamese / Welsh
16 channel audio installation, glass paint
Photography: Mark Neidermann