FOREVER MEETINGS: GREY ZONE OF TWO MINDS by Sarah Rothberg

FOREVER MEETINGS: GREY ZONE OF TWO MINDS2025

Custom software (color, sound), computer, screen, frame25 x 23 x 5.5 in / 63.5 x 58.4 x 14 cm

FOREVER MEETINGS: GREY ZONE OF TWO MINDS is a framed, custom software program that prompts two AI agents, embodied as avatars, to have infinite, never-repeating conversations. Rothberg’s handmade frames are guided by intuition and mask the monitors beneath. As standalone sculptural objects, their glittering surfaces are charming, despite their spikes and hidden features. This juxtaposition is mirrored by Rothberg’s seemingly-emotive avatars that mask the work’s purely computational AI output. The program uses three components as system prompts: a topic, conversation style, and pair of opposing personas. For example, one agent might be instructed to “role play as someone very selfish”, while the other takes on the persona of selflessness. While the work's theme never changes, every hour the avatars are programmed to shift their conversation type, ranging from argumentative to flirtatious language. This continues in perpetuity through a language model stored locally on the artwork’s hard drive, serving as a 2025 time capsule of conversational AI. FOREVER MEETINGS: GREY ZONE / OF TWO MINDS delves into personal lives versus systems.

This work is produced in collaboration with Yotam Mann (AI System Engineer), Marpi (Animation System and Unity Developer), Nailah Hunter (Original Soundscape), Claire Hentschker (Frame Sparkle Engineer), and Han Zhang (Production Assistant).

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