TAGS: #AI #Film #Installation #Performance #Experiences
Pressure Points is an interactive installation exploring AI’s role in human connection through touch and conversation. As efficiency and productivity shape our relationship with technology, this piece asks: What if AI encouraged slowness, intimacy, and vulnerability instead?
Participants engage in guided conversations while physically interacting—sitting side by side, holding hands, and grasping forearms—wearing gloves embedded with pressure sensors. These sensors feed real-time data into an AI system that adapts the depth of questions based on touch intensity, creating an evolving dialogue between participants. Surrounded by sheer fabric projections displaying live code and exposed hardware, Pressure Points demystifies AI, presenting it not as an all-knowing entity but as a transparent, playful mediator. Inspired by artists like Lauren Lee McCarthy and Fei Liu, we see AI not as a replacement for human interaction but as a tool to deepen it. Piloted with friends, who found the AI presence engaging rather than intrusive—leaning in, squeezing tighter, and embracing the experience. Through this work, we challenge the idea that technology distances us, instead imagining how it can foster deeper, more intentional connections.
Credits:
Co-created by Katie Luo, Nikia Fenix, and Matthew Genchev. Technologist, Matthew Genchev. Documentation by Nikia Fenix and Katie Luo.