What is the meaning of your collective's name, u2p050, which you have defined as a "creative machine"? 

u2p050 is an indeterminate name, with no personal association, taken from an electronic component in one of the machines we use. It was randomly chosen by an algorithm. It's also the password for our Wi-Fi: it's a word that suggests a blurring of human and non-human, machine and living. In extremely diverse forms – immersive exhibitions, installations, texts and audiovisual productions – we explore a perspective where the machine is no longer seen as a tool to be controlled, instead as a window to visualise new worlds. 

Could you explain to us how you work together? 

u2p050 is a research and creative studio that brings together skills that are usually disparate in the art world: curating, conceptual and philosophical research, sound design and computer development. We seek to question the terms of artistic production through our digital creations. We try to operate in a circular way, taking into account the continuous feedback from the various trades that make up the collective, rather than working like an assembly line. The sounds, images and texts in our experiences are therefore the result of an ongoing discussion between these participants and are designed in parallel. It is important to us that these different creative aspects are developed concurrently. 

You have been experimenting with Artificial Intelligence (AI) since its inception, most recently with your SMACK DAT exhibition at L'Avant Galerie Vossen in Paris. What is your perception of the medium? What other technologies are you currently interested in, or mistrustful of? 

Within u2p050, we work with sound and blockchain, and also with AI, applied to sound, image and text. When you work with these technologies, you soon realise that they are evolving at slow rate. For example, in the case of audio plugins (features in sound software), game engines (the components of game software) used in metaverses, or blockchain, there is a big difference between the media view of these technologies and the relationship we have with them in our daily work, which is much slower. There is currently a lot of talk about generative AI, with creative capabilities, as if it were a revolution, but this technology has existed for many years. 

Our creative approach is guided by human sciences first and foremost, it is a documentary, anthropological and sociological approach. It is the theme – the automation of milking machines, the transformation of a bird stock in southern France, the geopolitics of the future – that triggers an initial research phase and then, solely from the materials gathered, a technological choice, according to what we think is most appropriate to deal with the subject. Our approach is a philosophical one, first and foremost. There is often a book that is dissected and analysed initially, before we look at specific locations. For the Salins de Hyères (the source for On ne peut pas empêcher les oiseaux... by the N.D.L.R collective), for example, the ideas of Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro on multi-perspectivism inspired us a great deal. 

u2p050 is the winner of Villa Formose Immersive – Taiwan XR Prototyping Residency, supported by the Forum des Images in partnership with CNC, TAICCA, Kaohsiung Film Archive, Bureau Français de Taipei and the Institut français. You recently returned from a residency in Kaohsiung, where you developed the Deep Ecology immersive exhibition project with the other studio members. Can you tell us more? 

Deep Ecology is a new immersive experience under development, for which we have received help with writing from the CNC, and support from various bodies that allowed us to travel to Kaohsiung. This documentary experience deals with the geopolitical consequences of what we call planetary computing, i.e. our ability to monitor our entire planet in real time. How will this redefine our borders, the relationships between countries and also between individuals? What does it mean when Taiwan becomes cyber-industrialised, when cryptominers emerge in Kazakhstan and move from one attack to another, or when we start equipping nature with AI and AR (Augmented Reality)? So we are trying to imagine such a future, where policy will be played out in the cloud. The starting point for our reflection this time is the work of philosopher Benjamin Bratton, who analyses this technostructure in different vertical and horizontal layers. From this book, we propose a narrative that is still being written, to navigate the viewer through these different layers, from the earth's layer, with mineral extraction, to the cloud. The aim is to retain the spectacular side of an immersive exhibition, while dealing with a rather complex subject, giving it real conceptual depth. 

How did your collaborations with local artists and professionals work? Why did you choose Taiwan for your residency? 

Taiwan is an extremely relevant location for our research topic. It is a major production centre for semiconductors, electronic chips and experimental technology in general. When we got there, we realised that what we wanted to study, microprocessor production in Taiwan, was frequently classified as secret for defence reasons. So we had to use misappropriated means, such as surveys on Google Earth that allowed us to map factories and mines in Chile, or Amazon and Google data centres. We were also able to conduct several interviews locally, with the National Communications Commission and the Good Idea studio, which practices "civic hacking" (aimed at strengthening the democratic functioning of communities), positioning itself on societal issues and educating the public around the law. We also met with a quantum optics research laboratory, which works between the arts and science. We were also very well received by the Kaohsiung Film Festival and were able to measure the extent of the immersive environment in Taiwan and the diversity of production, especially in VR (virtual reality), which impressed us a lot. 

What stage is the project at now? Do you have any other projects you would like to talk to us about? 

We are now entering the production phase for Deep Ecology and we are in discussion with potential partners and co-producers. The project will be designed and optimised for distribution in large 360-degree projection rooms. We then hope to deploy the experience in augmented reality and virtual reality versions, or even bring them together through multi-projection. The continuity and modularity between the different immersive devices is really close to our heart and remains the key development principle behind Deep Ecology. 

As for other new works, we have just finished producing the You're Very Special project. You're Very Special is an immersive documentary exhibition consisting of a collection of archives, produced by artificial intelligence, from the attack on the Capitol in Washington on 6 January 2021. Based on semantic and sound mapping of the Capitol attack, text-to-image and sound-to-image AI techniques allow us to generate imaginary archives of the event. By prompting (a "prompt" is the text entered to direct the AI creation) using Trump's tweets, police conversations via walkie-talkies, extracts from the Fox News channel or even quotes from members of the enquiry committee, the machine offers a new synthetic visual and audio archive of the event. As a new US presidential election approaches, the project invites the public to question the authenticity of the images they are currently seeing.