Steerless into the future

Editor Soraja Hagspiel

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What happens when no one is at the wheel and yet everyone is in the car? At Münsterhof, the audience becomes part of an experiment about control and trust.

On an autumn afternoon, we were walking through Zurich's old town with friends. We had read on Kulturzüri that there was an installation entitled "AUTO" in the Münsterhof. A performance was supposed to take place every 45 minutes. When we arrive, everything seems quiet. A bright yellow Postbus is parked in the centre of the square. "FUTURE BOUND" is written above the door, next to it a screen flashes with the prompt "TAKE A RIDE". All around are yellow lines, arrows, barriers and digital boards with words like "HEY YOU" or "DON'T THINK". It looks like a testing ground, a film set - or perhaps both at the same time. People stop, take photos, read the signs and look at the lines on the floor. But nothing happens.

Curious, I go to a small, cube-shaped stand labelled "AUTO", where two people in yellow fluorescent waistcoats are standing. They look like stewards and part of the art at the same time. "When do we start?" I ask. Shortly afterwards, we're sitting on a yellow staircase with a couple of strangers. A screen wakes up and a woman, presumably generated by AI, greets us in a matter-of-fact but friendly manner. She explains the procedure: We have to perform white texts, sing yellow ones. We have to choose a destination together. We decide on Villa Kunterbunt, perhaps because it sounds pleasantly familiar in this strange situation.

We are then asked to get into the Postbus. Together with the strangers, we take our seats in the small, driverless bus. "Think of your first memories of being driven," is written on the screen. Then our imaginary journey towards Villa Kunterbunt begins. The Postbus remains motionless, while passers-by outside watch the scene with curiosity. At first we follow the instructions hesitantly, then more and more freely. We sing, throw our hands in the air, laugh and notice how our small group forms its own improvised community.

I had expected to see a performance, but suddenly we ourselves are the performance. An unexpected role reversal that irritates and fascinates at the same time. You become the main character in an experiment about control and trust, in the middle of a public space.

The longer we take part, the clearer it becomes that each group sitting here is creating its own version despite the same instructions. In addition to the AI's commands, we influence each other. The mood, the decisions, the hesitation or laughter change what "AUTO" is at that moment. The work lives from its participants. You influence and are influenced and together create a fleeting, unique experience.

Artist Lauren Lee McCarthy said in an interview with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: "AUTO is the feeling of driving into the future at high speed without anyone behind the wheel." Her installation transforms the space into a laboratory for human-machine relationships. She asks what happens when technology leads, we follow and how voluntary this following actually is.

At the end, we get out, a little amused, a little overwhelmed, but with the feeling of having been part of something unexpected. Maybe that's exactly the point: that you don't have to understand everything to take something away with you.

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"AUTO Münsterhof" from Lauren Lee McCarthy, until 29 October 2025, daily 12pm-8pm, performances every 45 minutes (German/English). A project by Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Zürich (KiöR), curated by Sabine Himmelsbach in collaboration with HEK Basel.