EXONEMO ANTIBOT T-SHIRTS

When trying to look at Captcha, a program that sits floatingly in the space where human literacy clashes with the analytical skills of a “bot”, as a form of “design”, it suddenly appears as a graphic object exposed through the dissolution of its actual purpose.

Design that sneezes at the human being…

Those heavily distorted letters very intensely reflect the distinct presence of a bot, and the imagination that leaps out from there contains a notion of hope that encourages us humans to realize that we are not alone. To whom is this T-shirt supposed to be shown? We received this award while asking ourselves such a question, not able to fully grasp our own actual situation. We would like to express our sincere gratitude—to bots and humans alike.

EXONEMO

Exonemo is an art unit established by Kensuke Sembo and Yae Akaiwa in 1996. Since forming their work has attempted to expose the relationship between technology and its users while flexibly moving between a network and real world. This approach has been realised in a number of experimental projects which have both a sense of humor and a new viewpoint in order to explore the impact of digital on contemporary society. Exonemo won Golden Nicas in the Net Vision category at Ars Erectronica, Austria in 2006. The studio is based in Tokyo and accessed online at exonemo.com.