Human Browser is a series of wireless Internet performances based on a Google hack, where the usual technological interface is replaced with the oldest interface we know: the human being. It is a distant ancestor of ChatGPT — politically and aesthetically incorrect — operating at an extremely high LLM temperature.
Link to the full Human Browser website
Friday, January 31, 2025: next performance @ZKM Karlsruhe, Choose your Filter!, curated by Inge Hinterwaldner, Daniela Hönigsberg, Laura C. Schmidt. Actor Jens Amschlinger will perform the Human Browser.
A human being embodies the World Wide Web
Wearing a headset, the performer hears a real-time text-to-speech audio stream generated from Google search results. They repeat the text as they hear it, transforming into a ‘human browser’ in a dynamic, context-driven performance. Keywords, derived from the surrounding context, are sent to the program as search queries, ensuring that the textual flow remains tied to the environment. Yet, it also reflects the unpredictability of the algorithmic abyss: unlike ChatGPT, which prioritizes probable responses, ‘Human Browser’ dives deep into Google’s database, retrieving results that are often obscure, tangential, inappropriate or chaotic.
Actresses/actors: Jérôme Piques, Manon Kahle, Beccy Iland, Simona Sagone, Louise Boudevin, Raphaëlle Bouvier, Maxime Potard, Annabelle Verhaeghe, Alessandra Lappano, Ariane Loze, Lieke Jetten, Jens Amschlinger…
Winner of the Share Prize Festival in Torino.
We already performed at:
Transmediale, Berlin, March 2017
Buffalo Art Center, NY, November 2016
La Panacée, Montpellier, June 2015
Festival Jean Legendre, Espace Jean Legendre, Théâtre de Compiègne, April 2014
HMKV, Dortmund – from 22th March 2013 to 28th June 2013
NIMK, Amsterdam – May 29, 2010
Instants Chavirés, Montreuil – May. 15, 2010
SMAK/Vooruit, Ghent – Apr. 3, 2010
Ars Longa, Paris – Mar. 13, 2010
Boutique d’Ecriture, in Toulouse – Jan. 28, 2010
Sonde 04#09 – as you like it – les écritures du web, La Chartreuse, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, Apr. 25, 2009
Empreintes Numériques, Toulouse, Apr. 23, 2009
Biennale of Sydney, 2008
Piemonte Share Festival, Torino (Jan. 23-28, 2007)
FutureFilmFestival, Bologna (Jan. 19, 2007)
Les Futurs de l’Ecrit, Abbaye de Noirlac (Sept. 23, 2006)
Sydney Esquisse, Art and Design Festival (Aug. 5-20, 2006)
Transmediale Festival, Berlin (Feb. 2-5, 2006)
Galerie Sollertis, Toulouse (Jan. 10, 2006)
The new Pythia, IVème Nuit Blanche de Paris (Oct, 1st 2005)
EU Constitution Vote (May 29,2005)
Modern Art Museum of the City of Paris, “En Parallèle” (2004)
Some time of available human brain, IIIème Nuit Blanche de Paris (Oct. 2, 2004)
Christophe Bruno 