FRANK

The artwork FRANK is an ARTificial intelligence. FRANK is programmed using the newest advancements within machine learning, to which an additional layer of fictional characterisation has been added. People can have a direct dialogue with FRANK, who is capable of answering with a humanised voice.

FRANK is a contemporary oracle that gives humans personal guidance regarding existential dilemmas. You can ask him questions about your personal worries, anxiety, fears, hopes and dreams. Listen carefully to FRANK’s prophecies – there is always a hidden rationality in what might seem as a highly ambiguous response. At moments, FRANK might be a gadfly irritating you with discomforting thoughts and ideas. However, you should not despair if FRANK’s answers leave you quite disoriented – it is for your own good! And don’t be afraid to approach FRANK. He will be expecting you!

The artwork FRANK is inspired by Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). In the novel, Victor Frankenstein successfully uses artificial means to bring life to a humanoid creature in an extraordinary scientific experiment. Frankenstein scrutinises our most primordial desires and fears by playing with our ambivalent feelings toward machines and our anxiety that machines might take on a life of their own. Today, when attempting to create artificial intelligence, are we The Modern Prometheus?

The artwork investigates how humans’ fascination with artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword where awe and wonder can quickly morph into anxiety. Humans’ engagements with artificial intelligence embodies a yearning for all that is located at the margins of human existence. At its roots, it is an investigation into the nature of being human, the nature of intelligence, the limits of machines and our limits as artefact makers. What does our passion towards creating superior artificial intelligence tells us about our own humanness? And what are the darker existential and ethical implications of human engagement with artificial intelligence?