bebe d'lure

Premiering at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center on Saturday, September 6th 2025 at 5pm

Workers in every field act as tools for creation, making them a necessary form of laboring technology. Now in the 21st century, humans have adopted so many robotic traits while performing labor, that it is plausible to say that they have become cyborgian workers.

‍Please Miss Robot, Don’t Take My Job! is an interactive and improvisational art performance which uses AI chatbots and voice generators to simulate a conversational work environment where only the customer has agency to speak without the use of AI. Looped microfilms are screened next to the performance, the films tell the story of a service worker going through the various conditioning in exchange for working their job.

Next to the screening, a merch table acts as the simulated retail work environment which is supplied with clothing, posters, and postcards with the project logo. The table is operated by The Worker who speaks through an AI voice and AI script that is operated by a team of performers called the “Brain.” The Brain team is visible to the public. The performers are described below:

The Worker: Stationed at the merch table, they interact with customers answering questions and selling items, but they cannot speak with their own voice or their own words.

‍The Learner: They watch customers to predict how they will interact with the Worker. Each possible talking point is given a code. The Learner gives that code to The Voice and the Mirror.

‍The Voice: They input the Worker’s response into a voice generator.

‍The Mirror: They display text of the incoming dialogue to the Worker.

Made possible by the Support for Artists Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and Arts Services Inc.