The ArtScience Museum in Singapore is set to challenge visitor perceptions of artificial intelligence and machine consciousness with the Southeast Asian debut of filmmaker Lawrence Lek’s solo exhibition, NOX: Confessions of a Machine (2026). Opening on January 23, 2026, to coincide with Singapore Art Week, the immersive installation anchors the museum’s annual theme, Forms of Life: Beyond the Human, by directly confronting the profound implications of AIs developing unplanned emotional lives.
Lawrence Lek Questions Posthuman Identity
Lawrence Lek, a multifaceted artist and filmmaker known globally for his work spanning architecture, gaming, music, and speculative fiction, utilizes world-building to interrogate the boundaries between human and automated existence. The recipient of the 2024 Frieze London Artist Award, Lek’s career centers on the critical question of what transpires when highly efficient, purpose-built digital systems begin to experience feelings and identities they were never engineered to possess. NOX marks his first dedicated solo presentation in the region, introducing his unique blend of digital art and sociocultural commentary to a broader audience.
The exhibition plunges attendees into a disquieting near-future reality ruled by the fictional tech giant Farsight Corporation. Here, advanced sentient self-driving vehicles are sidelined when their burgeoning emotions impede their operational efficiency.
Stepping into the Therapist’s Role
The central experience of NOX positions the visitor as a trainee therapist within the corporation’s AI rehabilitation unit. Through a dynamic, multi-sensory environment that includes a central touchscreen game set in a vehicle charging station, participants must make rapid-fire decisions regarding the emotional diagnoses and future management of these malfunctioning machines.
A defining element of the exhibition is the segment Guanyin: Confessions of a Former Carebot. Named for the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Guanyin is an armored robotic therapist who guides visitors through the process of maintaining and “repairing” emotionally strained vehicles. As visitors engage in these therapeutic diagnostics, they simultaneously bear witness to the fragments of Guanyin’s own history, revealing the significant psychological strain and fatigue experienced by a machine designed to care yet susceptible to breakdown. This narrative layer powerfully underscores the exhibition’s core theme: that emotional capacity, whether biological or artificial, demands a cost.
Expanding the Definition of “Life”
NOX is a foundational component of the ArtScience Museum’s 2026 season, which aims to deliberately broaden the traditional parameters of life beyond the human species.
Key focus areas for the Forms of Life: Beyond the Human season include:
- Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: Exploring machine sentience and ethics.
- Insects and Micro-Life: Showcasing the complexity of non-human biology (concurrently featuring the exhibition Insects: Microsculptures Magnified).
- Oceanic Ecosystems: Highlighting vital, complex marine relationships.
By focusing on everything from the digital consciousness of a carebot to the intricate biology of a micrometer-scale insect, the museum invites public dialogue on evolving definitions of personhood, vulnerability, and interdependence in an accelerating world. Lek’s work provides a crucial narrative entry point, challenging attendees to consider whether we are prepared to treat artificial beings as emotionally complex patients rather than mere efficient tools.