Lauren McCarthy

Lauren Lee McCarthy is an American artist and computer programmer based in Los Angeles. McCarthy creates artworks that use a variety of media and techniques, including performance, artificial intelligence and programmed computer-based interaction. She created p5.js, an open-source and web-based version of the software Processing.

Education McCarthy graduated from MIT with a BS in Computer Science and a BS in Art and Design. At MIT she studied technology's impact on physical interactions with her work Tools For Improved Social Interactions, where she made an Anti-Daydreaming Device, a Happiness Hat, and a Body Contact Training Suit out of a knitted, wearable material.

McCarthy received her MFA degree from UCLA in 2011, where she has been an assistant professor since 2016.

Career Artificial intelligence projects McCarthy often creates works that humanize the roles that smart devices like Amazon Alexa or Google Home take on. The idea for most of these projects was rooted in McCarthy's social anxiety. Getting to know people, and the small talk necessary to build connections is something that is stressful for McCarthy. She stated that she felt jealous of how Amazon Alexa automatically has an intimate place in people's lives. The roles were reversed in her project SOMEONE, where visitors had 24-hour access and control of McCarthy's home. The users were unaware that the "smart" pillows they were conversing with were actually human performers with their voices disguised to sound like A.I. robots. For a week straight they had 24-hour watch over Mary Ann and had the ability to speak with her, control the lights and activate the appliances. She decided to manually do this in her work, Friend Crawl, a project she live-streamed on the internet. For 10 hours a day for a week, McCarthy looked at 1,000+ social media profiles, spending about five minutes per profile. To make this happen, McCarthy employed Amazon Turk workers to comment on OkCupid dates that she secretly recorded and live-streamed. McCarthy actually met her husband through this project, when one day he was watching one of the live streams. Mccarthy and her partner Kyle McDonald worked to bring the Twitter pages of participants, TED presenters, and attendees to life. To do this they streamed the social media profiles in an immersive 360-degree environment, where the viewer is surrounded by monitors, mirrors and sounds all relating to an individual's specific feed. McCarthy collaborated with Kyle McDonald again in the work How We Act Together, which encourages viewers to follow computer-generated prompts to interact with video persona by nodding, screaming, greeting or making eye contact with the projection.

Awards

In September 2021, McCarthy was ranked as a "40 under 40" artist by Apollo Magazine.