SPAMBOTS
Neil Mendoza
What tales would nature tell if given a voice?
Oink. It turns out cans of Spam are no longer happy to sit quietly on the shelf. Industrial farming is an often-overlooked aspect of society, with animals being born into their fates. Read the porcine prose on screen as our Spambots muse on their destiny, typing out an AI-generated script based on the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Modern technology has given these cans of ham a voice of sorts – do we empathise more when nature communicates in a language we understand? What’s your personal relationship with industrial farming and food production? Seeing animatronic luncheon meat may feel a little strange, but the ways humans separate themselves from nature are stranger.
Is this story one we want to hear?
Neil Mendoza (UK/USA) is an artist who blends sculpture and engineering to animate objects and spaces. He employs humour and absurdity as tools to investigate how we mediate our interactions with each other and the natural world. His art often repurposes found objects, offering viewers a fresh perspective that challenges their preconceptions.
Photography: Matthew Stanton