The exhibition Machines for Disobedient Dialogues presents a critical artistic practice that reuses obsolete linguistic media to question and subvert the temporal norms and ideological assumptions embedded in generative language technologies (GenAI). Through a design materially characterised by vintage aesthetics and hybrid assemblages, the artefacts on display bring to light the extractive infrastructures that support GenAI, challenging dominant narratives of technological progress centred on speed, productivity, and scalability.

The machines are not limited to an aesthetic reconsideration of the past, but promote the functional reuse of obsolete linguistic devices—such as the typewriter or tape recorder—reconfigured through integration with contemporary language models (LLMs). This fusion of historical and computational media highlights both the continuities and discontinuities in the evolution of language technologies.

These machines are discursive in three distinct ways: technically, because they process language; conceptually, because they question the politics of linguistic automation; and experientially, because they stimulate situated reflections through mediated interaction. In line with the tradition of critical making, the author of the machines acts as a facilitator during the exhibition, introducing them to visitors and engaging in dialogue with them.

The conception of machines is situated in the interpretation of algorithms as political artefacts, mobilising critical theories—such as Harthmut Rosa’s social acceleration theory—to make visible and disobey the hegemonic values inscribed in GenAI systems.

Two Disobedient Discursive Machines have been realised so far. Isotta, a tweeting machine based on a Mignon typewriter, and Alessia, a slow vocal assistant.