Technologies of Care and Alice Cares
Ticket Information
Standard: HKD 85
Concession: HKD 68
Technologies of Care and Alice Cares
Today, as our lives become increasingly dependent on the conveniences afforded by technology, even our relationships and emotional bonds are being mediated by machines. In Technologies of Care (2016), artist Elisa Giardina Papa interviews seven freelancers, including a social media fan-for-hire, a nail wrap designer, and a fetish video performer, who offer online, on-demand emotional support through digital platforms. Through 3D renderings and voiceover narratives, the video brings forward a new perspective on the human lives behind digital labour. Alice Cares (2015) follows a carebot named Alice, developed by a research team in Amsterdam, who is piloted in the homes of three elderly single women. As the team refines the software, Alice is not only able to recognise and respond to human emotions, but she also begins to change the lives of her companions. Two separate plotlines unravel the potential and risk when love and care is transformed into a service or commodity through technology.
About the Directors
Elisa Giardina Papa lives and works in New York and Sant'Ignazio, Sicily. Her works focus on gender, sexuality, labour, human relationships, wellbeing, and emotions in the digital era. The artist produced Labor of Sleep (2017) and Cleaning Emotional Data (2020) which formed a trilogy with Technologies with Care to explore how digital economies and technology affect the way we work and live. Her video installation U Scantu: A Disorderly Tale was exhibited at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, in 2022.
Sander Burger (b. 1975) is a Dutch director. Alice Cares is Burger's first feature documentary. He has directed a number of drama films such as Panman: Rhythm of the Palms (2007), Hunting & Sons (2010), and The Judgement (2021).
Image at top: Sander Burger. Alice Cares, 2015. Photo: Courtesy of Doxy Films