ArtScience Museum in Singapore is set to host "NOX: Confessions of a Machine," the first solo exhibition in Southeast Asia by Lawrence Lek, opening on 23 January 2026. This exhibition, coinciding with Singapore Art Week, marks the beginning of the museum's 2026 season, "Forms of Life: Beyond the Human." Lek, a recipient of the 2024 Frieze London Artist Award, is renowned for his work on artificial intelligence and posthuman identity.
The exhibition transports visitors to a futuristic smart city, showcasing the fictional Farsight Corporation's AI systems through two interconnected works: "NOX" and "Guanyin: Confessions of a Former Carebot." "NOX" features a therapy centre for autonomous vehicles, focusing on Enigma-76, a self-driving delivery vehicle undergoing psychological rehabilitation. Visitors engage with a touchscreen game, acting as trainee therapists to restore malfunctioning vehicles.
The journey culminates in Enigma-76's final therapy session, accompanied by Dakota, a therapy horse, evoking a connection between past and present transport modes. "Guanyin" extends the narrative, allowing visitors to experience the perspective of an armoured robot therapist, exploring themes of empathy and emotional labour.
Honour Harger, Vice President of ArtScience Museum, stated, "Forms of Life is a deliberate segue into the wider ecology of life beyond the human." The season includes major exhibitions and public programmes exploring multispecies worlds and intelligent systems.
"NOX: Confessions of a Machine" will run until 19 April 2026, inviting visitors to reflect on AI, automation, and machine consciousness. Tickets are available at Marina Bay Sands box offices and online.
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