TOCSIN by Naomi B. Cook

“Tocsin,” conceptualized by artist Naomi B. Cook, is an interactive installation and innovative online karaoke machine that explores how emerging technologies shape our experiences and identities. Cook critically examines the “information reorganization revolution” through research into the Enron Corpus, the LAION dataset, and modern image-tagging practices.

The title Tocsin draws inspiration from city warning sirens, referencing France’s SAIP (Système d’Alerte et d’Information aux Populations) and Singapore’s SIGNAL program, known as “Voice of the Battlefield.” The show—like the work bearing the same title—serves as a clarion call, urging viewers to reflect on the invisible forces and narratives shaping our digital world.-

The show is built around the installation “Homeroom,” consisting of data-visualizing works taking the form of a classroom, including a desk, a chalkboard, a globe, a library, and an apple. A pennant creates the stage for the “Tocsin” karaoke machine. This work features a cast of luminary musicians, Gambletron, Blake Hargreaves, Tim Kingsbury, and Andy White, who contributed to a dynamic database of songs and is complemented by a stochastic lyrics generator. The words come from the Enron Corpus—valued as one of the few public archives of real emails leaked online by a disgruntled lobbyist and used to train technologies like Siri and spam filters—which underpins the project’s research. The visuals draw from the LAION dataset, a massive dataset of images used to train AI image-generation models. Image-tagging practices inform the project’s exploration of data-driven systems and reiterations of the Language of Thought hypothesis.

TOCSIN by Naomi B. Cook

Art Calendar