Paint the Town Red
2024Paint the Town Red invites visitors to engage with a work created entirely from AI-generated neural voices, sourced from publicly accessible translation sites such as Google Translate and DeepL. By leveraging neural machine translation software, the installation challenges visitors to reflect on their relationship with online translation, 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.
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. Sixteen speakers installed on the glass create an auditory experience where the physical qualities of the space enhance the work’s impact. 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.
Featured Languages: 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