Rest! (2026) - An AI-driven Durational Performance
In collaboration with Dorte Bjerre Jensen
Rest! is a durational performance that explores the relationship between an AI system and the human body. In the work, a performer lies on a mattress attempting to rest while an AI system continuously observes their body. Through visual analysis of posture and presence, the system produces spoken directives intended to encourage the performer to continue resting.
Throughout the performance, the human body becomes the object of persistent machine observation. The AI directives may sometimes appear supportive or meditative, while at other moments they become intrusive, absurd, or oddly authoritative. What begins as encouragement to rest gradually reveals the tension between human experience and algorithmic interpretation.
By placing the resting body under constant machine observation, Rest! reflects on contemporary cultural attitudes toward productivity and inactivity. In many social and technological systems, rest is framed as inefficiency, laziness, or failure. The performance asks what happens when AI systems are increasingly expected to replace human labor. What will happen then? Will we be able to rest? What if AI systems encourage rest, or instead ensure that we remain passive, inactive, and non participatory?
The work examines how AI technology frames and interprets human behavior. Rest, a fundamentally subjective and internal state, becomes something the machine attempts to verify, guide, and regulate through visual observation. The performance raises questions about how AI systems may increasingly participate in shaping everyday human actions, even those traditionally considered private or unproductive.
Over the duration of the performance, the performer continues attempting to rest. The body shifts positions, breathing slows, and at times genuine sleep may occur. Meanwhile, the AI system continues to watch, interpret, and speak, transforming rest into a negotiated space between human vulnerability and computational surveillance.
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