Last Human - Coro Shed Project

August 3, 2021 · 4 min read

"Humanity is no more, but LAMO (Local Automated Museum Outpost) Continues..." Part of The Coro's Shed Installation 'Our Earth' project in Ulverston, August 2021.

This project was part of the Coro's shed Installation project following the theme of "Our Earth".

Here's an intro from the Coro website :

Our sheds are placed in the landscape for anyone to happen upon in their own time and enjoy. [...] This year we've invited three artists to transform the sheds into new experiences for you to enjoy.

The theme “Our Earth” set me off in a contrary direction imagining a time when it’s no longer our earth at all. A time when our automated systems and AI continue on without us, awaiting new entities to claim ownership of the planet.

There are two parts to my Last Human shed - a set of three dioramas and a hologram message from the last human.

Last Human

Visitors to the shed can press a lovely big button to play in expanatory intro:

Welcome to LAMO - a Local Automated Museum Outpost.
Humanity is no more, but LAMO continues...
Our Behavioural Observation Drones witness local rituals, our Curator AI interprets and represents.
If you are one of the final human inhabitants of Our Earth
- Hello Last Human! -
Please leave a recording using the Ambertech capture device.
You'll be given 7 seconds to represent your species for future sentient visitors.
That should be ample
Enjoy.

Visitors are asked to play the role of the last human on earth to leave a 7 second recording for the future sentient inhabitants. They can press a second lovely big button to start the recording. There's a 3 second countdown and then the recording starts.

After the recording ends their seven seconds message plays on loop until they press the reset button, a new recording is added or after 5 minutes if left playing.

I love tactile buttons - in a world increasingly controlled by touch screen, voice and face activities, it’s lovely to press big buttons, flick switches and turn clicky dials.

Dioramas

Jennie made three dioramas as if created from an automated museum system that misinterprets three Ulverstons festival / events as if they were sacred rituals to local gods.

Marking out the shed dimensions at home

I used a car boot microfiche as the screen enclosure to hold the monitor, webcam and angled perspex.

I boxed in a usb extension to power the lights and a MakeyMakey to trigger key presses from the buttons.

Things are getting a bit chaotic in the bedroom! I used a second-hand cabinet to hold the screen and build a control panel as a barrier that would also hold the buttons.