The title Good Machine Bad Machine (2022) is a direct reference to Bruce Naumanʼs video Good Boy Bad Boy (1985), in which two actors repeat the same sentences (ʻʼI am a bad boyʼʼ/ʼʼI am a good boyʼʼ) with increasing emotional intensity. In his work, Nauman creates a system of speech based on acting and questions the authenticity of speech and inner emotions.
In the video installation, Koizumi brings this premise into the mechanical realm by using hypnosis, instead of acting, to change the actorsʼ emotions.
The sentences that are repeated reflect on notions of authority, free will and the human-machine relationship, and are emotionally charged. However, through hypnosis and the mechanical repetition this demands, sentences turn into empty words, and emotions into programmed sentiments. Words like ʻʼforgiveʼʼ, ʻʼescapeʼʼ, and ʻʼbe a good humanʼʼ resonate throughout the space like the sound of a creaking machine. The footage of Tokyo, on the backside of the projection screen, was filmed by Koizumi in the 11 years after 2011 earthquake and connects the theme of hypnosis to a social reality. These scenes of everyday cityscape direct us to reflect on the mechanic nature of both our individual and collective
unconsciousness that shape our social realities under the reign of a (non-)human authority.
As an installation, Good Machine Bad Machine reveals human vulnerability towards authority and sheds light on the ways in which technologies like Artificial Intelligence are used to shape our daily life and desires, de-stabilizing the definition of what it means to be human.
The installation is optionaly accompanied by a mechanical sculpture “Ritual of Life” (2022).