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Episode page and full transcript: lerandom.art/episodes/lawrence-lek-world-entry…
In this special podcast episode, host Peter Bauman (Monk Antony, Le Random’s editor in chief) speaks with artist and filmmaker Lawrence Lek (lerandom.art/subjects/lawrence-lek) about NOX Pavilion at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami, an immersive installation centered on a self-driving car in a “therapy” program for malfunctioning AIs.
They unpack Lek’s long-running NOX universe: a speculative rehab center where care can slide into control, and where machine interiority is treated as a technical defect. The conversation moves from the politics of nonhuman rights and legal gray zones (“it depends”) to Lek’s recurring fascination with autonomous creative agency and what it would mean for an AI to make art as a choice that conflicts with its intended function.
In the second half, Lek and Bauman widen the lens to world-building: why a world isn’t one thing but multiple entry points, how ideas like Umwelt and worldview shape what any intelligence can perceive, and why Lek increasingly thinks of his simulations as “superficial models”—interfaces to reality rather than claims to foundational truth.
Monday’s Le Random Editorial: "Embodying AI at NeurIPS 2025: Creative AI Track" by Luba Elliott (lerandom.art/editorial/embodying-ai-at-neurips…)
and "Ian Cheng on Composing with Systems" by Peter Bauman (lerandom.art/editorial/ian-cheng-on-composing-…)
Also in this episode: Luba Elliott (lerandom.art/subjects/luba-elliott), Ian Cheng (lerandom.art/subjects/ian-cheng), Karl Sims (lerandom.art/subjects/karl-sims), Sarah Friend (lerandom.art/subjects/sarah-friend)
Read next: Lawrence Lek on AI Reinventing Place (lerandom.art/editorial/lawrence-lek-on-ai-rein…)
Listen next: Ep. 41, James Bridle—Questioning Machine Intelligence with Peter Bauman (lerandom.art/episodes/james-bridle-questioning…), Ep. 31, Ian Goodfellow on Inventing GANs with Peter Bauman (Deep Learning Series 02) (lerandom.art/episodes/ian-goodfellow-on-invent…)
On the Living Timeline: Lawrence Lek Wins 2024 Artist Award at Frieze London (2024) (timeline.lerandom.art/m/lawrence-lek-wins-2024…)
Chapters 📖:
Introduction
Can AI have nonhuman agency and rights?
Can AI interiority be repaired?
Who is to blame in Empty Rider?
Who is the crash test dummy?
Why resist empathy for machines?
Are simulations stories or lifeforms?
What counts as a world?
Where are immersive worlds heading?
