Our Own Devices

A giant metal pop-up book. A celebration of humans still finding new ways to bend and fold and cut. Of metal—strong and flexible. Like paper but different.

The Tower of Babel gave us purpose. Humans built so high that we threatened the divine. We were scattered into languages they couldn't share.

We built the tower again. We finished it this time.

AI is made from everything we've said, every image, every sound. The universal translator, finally. And now it's inventing languages we can't follow. We're not building the tower anymore. We're the confused masses at the bottom.

This is happening. CNC cuts the pages. Code draws the plans. Tech money pays for it. We made this piece with the thing we're warning you about.

But the mechanism is ours. You turn a wheel, which turns gears, which moves linkages. A page lifts. Hinges and counterforces raise the tower, and you can trace every step with your eyes. No tricks. We built something about incomprehension that you can fully comprehend.

While you still can.

You see a wheel. You turn it.

Others join. The steel book above you groans open. A tower rises from the pages—and keeps rising. Eight feet. You didn't expect that.

Then you notice the material. This is steel. Hinges and counterforces, the geometry of a pop-up book, but in metal. Impossible and inevitable.

You look down through the glowing plinth. Gears are moving. Your hands turned the wheel, the wheel turned the gears, the gears opened the book. You can trace every step. No tricks.

You notice text etched into the surface. Languages you recognize, languages you don't. Others are trying to translate. Someone is arguing about meaning.

From inside the tower, you hear murmuring. A voice? Voices? You can't make out the words.

You stay longer than you planned.

Some people will turn the wheel and walk away satisfied. Some will trace the gears. Some will argue about the text. Some will stand quiet, listening for words that won't come. All of these are correct.

Our Own Devices is supported in part by the Burning Man Project.

Our Own Devices is a fiscally sponsored project of San Diego Collaborative Arts Project (SDCAP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law and are made to SDCAP on Our Own Devices' behalf.