Nicolas Gourault: VO

Videostill from Nicolas Gourault, VO, 2020, 19 min., video, colour, sound.  © Nicolas Gourault – Le Fresnoy – Studio national – 2020. All rights reserved

Keywords: Autonomy, automating, automation complacency, smart city, mobility, immobility, maintenance, gaze, attention, hypnosis, boredom

Synopsis: A deadly accident between a self-driving car and a pedestrian sets off an investigation about the role of human workers in the training of driverless cars. Testimonies from vehicle operators (VOs) guide us through a night shift where the landscape merges with data from the car’s sensors and surveillance devices.

Statement: The development of automated vehicles has fostered a lot of expectations as much in terms of technological breakthrough as in terms of financial speculation for automakers and “mobility providers“. Yet, the hype surrounding automation conceals the role of many human workers hired for subordinate and off-putting tasks which proved impossible to automate, be that for economical, technical or legal reasons. Rather than to the prowess of an “intelligent” car, VO (“Vehicle Operator”) focuses on the paradoxical status of vehicle operators, employees who monitor the training of cars which are ultimately meant to get rid of the human factor.

Nicolas Gourault

Nicolas Gourault (b. 1991) is a French artist and filmmaker trained in contemporary art schools but also in visual studies. His work is imbued with this double training and aims at linking visual issues with political concerns by means of a documentary critique of new media.

He has collaborated with the studio Forensic Architecture (UK). His works have been exhibited in contemporary art venues such as Centre Pompidou (FR), the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (GER), the HMKV Hartware MedienKunstVerein (GER), la Cité internationale des arts (FR), and le musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (FR), but also in film festivals such as Cinéma du Réel (FR), Hot Docs (CA), Sheffield Doc|Fest (UK), Festival Nouveaux Cinéma (CA), Festival dei Popoli (IT), IndieLisboa (PT), E Tudo Verdade (BR), Punto de Vista (ESP).

The video VO was presented in 2022 in the exhibition House of Mirrors – Artificial Intelligence as Phantasm at the HMKV.

 

Nicolas Gourault is the recipient of the 2^nd Human AI Art Award by the Deutsche Telekom and the Kunstmuseum Bonn, which will be presented at the Kunstmuseum Bonn on 21 September 2025. Congratulations, dear Nicolas!

https://www.kunstmuseum-bonn.de/en/ausstellungen/human-ai-art-award-2025/