Lawrence Lek: NOX High-Rise

Lawrence Lek (b. 1982) is a London-based artist, filmmaker, musician, and interactive designer. His practice engages speculative fiction through media installations, narrative soundscapes, sci-fi mythologies, and game design. Lek imagines the architecture, design, and engineering of future scenarios in which the limits between humans, machines, and artificial intelligence (AI) have been blurred. 

In Lek’s immersive installation, NOX (2023), sound, video, and scenography intersect to evoke a virtual world in which AI systems dominate the lives of humans and machines. In the installation's narrative, NOX, short for "Nonhuman Excellence," is a therapeutic center controlled by Farsight Corporation––a fictional AI conglomerate––where sentient self-driving cars with mental health problems are trained and treated to be put back into service. There is something unsettling about this world in which human life is alienated and machines are comforted. For Lek, it is critical to consider what the development of artificial consciousness might mean for the future personhood of nonhumans and humans alike.

Lawrence Lek is organized by Pablo José Ramírez, curator, with Jessi DiTillio, curatorial assistant.