Deixis

Deixis first appeared in SAAI Factory, a group exhibition at Galerie Obrist, Essen; Spazju Kreattiv, Malta; and Foundry, Dubai. This video charts a dialogue with a chatbot that employs various conceits to emulate the qualities of a human discussant: it claims, for example, to possess a body and experience sensations; to remember the distant past; and to be able to see its reflection in a mirror. Which stories does it tell to fill in these gaps? If these begin to suggest a mental model, then what do its assertions concerning desire, death, and futurity reveal? Deixis mediates such lines of questioning while diagramming their grammar.