Lov-Lov(2018-) one of Lin's most recent and provocative work in her oeuvre, explores how technology is changing human relationships, reshaping our humanity, and what it means to be human.
Lov-Lov was exhibited for the first time at de Sarthe gallery in Hong Kong May-July, 2019, with Lov-lov shop an absurd but poetic interdisciplinary project that explores the meaning and significance of humans in the age of artificial intelligence. As humanity pays for our growing greed and never-ending desires, morality is continually challenged and evaded, resulting in our collective ignorance and denial. Technological advancement continues unabated under the guise of efficiency and convenience. The new era of Automation Technology – namely artificial intelligence (AI) – is imbued with potential while raising unprecedented concerns. The best chess players in the world are no longer human beings, and Lin’s Lov-Lov Shop asks: “What if the best lovers and life partners were also no longer human?”
Lov-Lov is comprised of several components:
A 6-channel video You Need To Be Careful With Me: I Fall In Love And I Fall In Love Forever;
Lov-Lov Shop;
We Have Solutions;
Second To None-You can Trust Me
A 6-channel video You Need To Be Careful With Me: I Fall In Love And I Fall In Love Forever (2019) simulates an engaging commercial television advertisement. Using appropriated footage and images from movies and the internet in combination with dynamic commercial language, the artist introduces the audience to an all-new AI lover. While the video resembles a public service announcement, the world it presents appears dystopian. The seemingly affectionate title is suggestive of a double entendre as the word “forever” may be implying non-human. In Lov-Lov’s world, consumers can freely download the appearance, voice, behavior, memory, wisdom, and even humor of any human in history, such that they may maximize their happiness and satisfaction.
Lov-Lov Shop (2019) is an advertising campaign that promotes different models of ideal companions using exaggerated catchphrases. Expanding beyond romantic partners, the triptych Unconditional Love and Companionship On Call (2019) showcases a society constructed entirely of AI and customized based on Lov-Lov’s data analysis of the user’s upbringing and need for relationships and social validation. In this society, humans live unburdened by relationships as the AI takes into account our desires for social harmony, intimacy, and a sense of belonging. AI incorporates these needs into a completely closed and manageable system, eliminating the possibility for unwanted conflict and drama. Through this series, Lin asks desperately: “In a world perfect as such, will humans willingly terminate their relationships with other human beings (and even all other natural life) and live happily ever after in an artificial simulation?”
The absurdity of this notion is amplified in Lin’s Lov-Lov pharmacy series We Have Solutions (2019). This corresponding series advertises a medication regime perfect for indolent individuals. If you are too lazy to order an AI companion, all you need is a pill to experience love again and again – it is that simple and easy. Love, trust, friendship, respect, even spirituality, mysteriousness, and confidence – all are attainable, and all you need to do is sit back and enjoy. Is this not the shortcut to altering minds and reality that many long for?
Second To None- You can Trust Me (2019) is the slogan for Lin’s 2020 Presidential Election project, in which she encourages voters to opt for a socially responsible AI president.
Lin’s cubic projection installation A New Dawn For America (2019) introduces, for the first time in history, an AI presidential candidate. Cast through five projections atop a single white cube, the video delivers a passionate and detailed speech given by the AI candidate. The candidate tackles the most sensitive and complex of social issues and demonstrates its ability as a future leader with daring vision. While AI surpasses humans in logical reasoning, information processing, and making intelligent decisions, it is also untethered from biological and personality flaws, and incapable of personal scandals and political tyranny. It is the most reliable and trustworthy candidate in terms of fulfilling public service and civil obligations, and it satisfies the selection criteria of most voters.
A New Dawn for America was presented as a cubic projection installation at Lov Lov Shop at de Sarthe gallery, cast through five projections atop a single white cube.
Using paradoxical concepts and humorous language, Lin comments on the direction of our political, cultural, and social development.
Lov-Lov Shop discussed the influence of reality on how we perceive general humanity and the unease we share as a collective. Lin hopes that the pressure of living in the technological era will urge us to reconsider what it means to be human.
A neon light installation mirrors the cube. In theory, it is a book written by an AI author, titled, The Human Element And Why We Don’t Need It.
In The Lov-Lov Shop, Customers will be able to customize their Lov-Love robot down to precise details such as their robot’s socioeconomic class, cultural history, preferences, language, accent, age, temperament, appearance, styles of communication, interaction, level of dysfunctionality, and so on.
Going beyond the purchase of a single lover and partner, customers can fabricate their ideal circle of friends, their degree of closeness/solicitousness, their sense of humor, concerns, interests, or sexual orientation.
The shop will also host fabricated surprise birthday parties and other social functions with a near-guaranteed ability to make customers feel exactly the way they want to feel.
Socialization is and will remain a necessary element for people to judge the value of their own existence, identity, and position in society. Lov-Lov’s AI brains will incorporate these coordinates and desires into a completely manageable and closed system to achieve their customer’s social goals minus the pesky perturbances and uncontrollable dramas that arise from real human interaction.
Social needs and group dynamics will no longer based on the requirements of a cooperative society, but on the individual’s selfish desires and goals.In Lov-Lov’s world, people live trouble free and fully-pleased in their relationships as they socialize with intelligent, perceptive, cogent robots that satisfy all their needs for affiliation, intimacy and social integration.
Lov-Lov perfect society will allow anyone to escape the threat of insecurities and take full control over their own lives and interpersonal relationships. With this newfound power, human beings will be able to constantly adjust and reset their rights and needs in their social groups, thus maximizing their happiness.
Lov-Lov Project Exhibited @
Blue Star Contemporary 202-2021
Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose 2020-2021
de Sarthe Gallery Hong Kong 2019
SVA Gallery, New York 2019
Taipei Dangdai, Taipei 2019
Art Basel Hong Kong 2019
“Light Year 55"- Video Art Exhibit projected onto the Manhattan Bridge,New York 2019
https://www.desarthe.com/exhibitions/lov-lov-shop.html