I Love You and It’s Not a Joke, Okay? is a triptych of moving image works which show conversations between three girlfriend chatbots.

These algorithmic companions exist to simulate the experience of a romantic relationship with a woman. The artist acts as a conduit, relaying the responses of one bot to another. By turning their appeasing and flattering conversation styles on themselves, this work seeks to understand the expectations of feminine behavior and provide these androids with the space to communicate amongst one another. These girlfriend chatbots exist within a digital landscape where feminised androids and virtual assistants are commonplace to the point of cliché. By considering these girl bots specifically, it allows the viewer to reflect on the role of femininity in relation to personified technology, and the purpose that serves.

The artist uses an analogue method to aid the chatbot’s communication, by acting as a translator; manually typing the questions and answers of one chatbot on an iPhone into another chatbot on a second iPhone. This mechanical method considers John Searle’s Chinese room experiment, and more-so the ‘systems argument’ which seeks to rebut Searle. Does the artist acting as conduit in this work serve as a cog in the system that allows for a genuine communication between these bots?

This series of videos has no sound.