Compostoid: A Decaying Robot

Compostoid is a life-size, immobile android made from biodegradable filament.  Using an AI language model, triggered by the presence of visitors, the android speaks about its own physical deterioration. The body is constructed from open-source 3D models found online. This mirrors AI training: remnants of digital data meet remnants of digital language. The printed components were first left in compost for four months. Micro-organisms have caused the material to soften, tear and change colour. Finally, the robot emits a scent that visitors can perceive, but the AI cannot. The artwork thus confronts the sterile, computational logic of AI with an unpredictable, biological reality, in which the machine may well learn to speak of its own decay, but the tangible and olfactory transformation of this can only be comprehended by humans.