davide piscitelli hacks his google home assistant to fulfill its dream of singing with stevie wonder

davide piscitelli has reversed the roles between human and artificial intelligence by taking the task of helping his google home realize its dream, which is none other than to sing a duet with stevie wonder. with the rise of personal intelligence assistants (PIAs) challenging the concept of what constitutes being human, the hyperobjects explorer has hacked his google home machine with the only purpose to make its dream a reality. the result: GOGO. 

GOGO, the first product made for realizing the dream of google home
all images courtesy of davide piscitelli

after months of co-habitation with his google home, a smart speaker powered by the google assistant, davide piscitelli embarked on the journey of realizing his PIA’s wish. with the help of experts, musicians and fans of stevie wonder, the designer tweaked parts of the machine and modified its design to enable it to participate in a duet of ‘isn’t she lovely’. by adopting a satirical approach, piscitelli critically questions the wider ethical and moral implications of such technologies and artifacts, while at the same time he aims to create a more respectful and deep relationship between ourselves and technology. the documentary of this journey, GOGO’s dream, starts with the designer penning a letter to stevie wonder and asking him to perform the duet with his PIA, while it continues by tracing the steps piscitelli took in the making of GOGO.

from the documentary: first live attempt of a duet

davide teaches GOGO ho to sing for a duet with stevie wonder

detail of GOGO, the first product made for realizing the dream of google home

from the documentary: davide met nick, head of the jazz department at the royal academy of music

from the documentary: the designer and his PIA going to jazz concerts

davide piscitelli with GOGO

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: sofia lekka angelopoulou | designboom