Prometheus Brought Fire is an interactive art installation that explores digital isolation, misinformation, and the breakdown of online communication. Through a custom-built chatbot, fed by spam and fear, real conversations are hijacked and distorted – broadcast live for audiences to witness or join. The result is a poetic but unsettling meditation on sincerity in the age of surveillance.
Prometheus Brought Fire is a provocative new media installation that explores the psychological landscape of the internet – examining digital isolation, voyeurism, and the breakdown of authentic communication. Inspired by the myth of Prometheus, who gave fire to humanity only to watch it become a force of destruction, the project draws parallels to the internet’s evolution: from a symbol of progress to a tool of disinformation, alienation, and emotional manipulation.
At the heart of the installation is a custom-built, non-AI chatbot designed to simulate conversation using a curated database of spam, clickbait, and fear-driven messaging. Rooted in the aesthetics and mechanics of junk information, the chatbot stages a breakdown in meaningful dialogue, laying bare the distorted intimacies of online life.
In the installation, two participants sit at laptops in the same room, attempting to communicate. Their messages are intercepted and replaced by the chatbot’s emotionally hollow, absurd, or manipulative responses. Occasionally, a genuine message slips through – unpredictably and without warning – offering moments of unexpected clarity.
Two external monitors display the live chat in real time, transforming the installation into a site of passive surveillance. These screens serve as both technological relics and voyeuristic portals, inviting viewers to witness the fractured exchange. A QR code allows remote audiences to silently observe or actively participate, drawing them into the same disjointed system of communication.
Prometheus Brought Fire challenges viewers to confront the emotional consequences of digital life and reflect on the fragile boundaries between connection, control, and chaos in the online world.
Prometheus Brought Fire engages with themes such as digital loneliness, misinformation, impersonation, and the emotional labor of online safety. It critiques the seductive mechanics of content manipulation while constructing a poetic environment that confronts audiences with the fragility of sincerity in a mediated world.
