Kira Dominguez Hultgren USA, b. 1980
Confirm Humanity, 2024
Wool, Cotton, Silk, Nylon, Metallic thread
33 x 40 x 4 in
83.8 x 101.6 x 10.2 cm
83.8 x 101.6 x 10.2 cm
Copyright The Artist
The CAPTCHA works intersect two different fields of conversation: feminist craft and human-computer interaction (HCI). CAPTCHA codes (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) used on...
The CAPTCHA works intersect two different fields of conversation: feminist craft and human-computer interaction (HCI). CAPTCHA codes (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) used on websites are framing a conversation about what makes us human, and how we can differentiate that humanness from computers or bots. Are users being trained in codes not just of behavior, but of identity? On the one hand, these CAPTCHA codes are slanted, obscured, made-strange, which points to a humanness that is fluid, changing, able to embrace oddity. On the other hand, the code is still written by humans with human biases, used as a security measure to differentiate what is standardized as human. For instance, CAPTCHA codes are often paired with questions on websites about our mother’s maiden names. Are we stuck in a code of femininity that assumes marriage and a husband’s identity as both a safety measure and a standardized ideal?
