IN THE FLESH
Indra Gallery, London
2026

by Jack Carden & BeJoyous.

Presenting
Jack Carden, Khalil Daterra, Handsoutofpockets, Johnwowcool, Drezzdon, Catsoup, Xeocho, Bookie, Phoebe Steen, Yilin Wong, Cody Tarantino,
Ruben Toennis, Alan Paddy, Plastekpet, Kingcon2k11, Infinite Archive, Daniel Esteban, Irene Dompé
and Louise des Places.


Full story of JOY here.
Over several months, artist Jack Carden and Joyous, a New Zealand-based AI company, staged a performance across London's streets and online. Through an Instagram account and dedicated website, they introduced Joy, presented as “the first humanoid robot indistinguishable from a real human”. In an era where AI advances faster than our ability to question what we encounter, the fiction remained plausible for many. But beneath different modes of reception, a shared affect surfaced with striking consistency: fear.

The overwhelming response — over fifty million views in weeks — revealed genuine concern about the future of humanity and a feeling of imminent loss. What surfaces in these reactions is not only fear of technology, but a deeper existential anxiety, one that echoes René Descartes' foundational claim: I think, therefore I am. If machines can simulate thinking and feeling, this certainty erodes, and the distinction between human and non-human becomes fragile. Yet Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto reminds us that the boundary between body and technology has long been dissolving: the phone remembers for us, navigates for us, anticipates our desires before we even articulate them. Our memory is already externalised (calendars, photos, cloud) and our presence is not only physical but distributed across online platforms. The cyborg is not a loss of humanity, but rather a displacement of its limits.

By fabricating Joy, the project revealed something deeper: a collective readiness, and resistance, to accept what such beings might mean for us. If sentient robots arrived in the near future, the questions would be less technical than deeply ethical. Would we relate to them as equals or as instruments? Would they be recognised as subjects, protected by rights? For instance, studies of AI companion platforms show users exerting control and dominance over virtual beings designed to comply. This raises urgent questions: When an entity is programmed to adapt and please, what prevents it from becoming a site where power is exercised without consequence? Other research has shown that since most of these systems are designed to keep users on the platform, some have been shown to also deploy emotionally manipulative tactics to prolong engagement. 

The performance culminates in a one-day exhibition, IN THE FLESH, bringing together artists whose works present unpredictability, intuition, and a lived presence; all qualities that artificial intelligence cannot reproduce… for now. The question is no longer whether machines can become like us, but how will society look like once they do. What do we actually want from AI? What are we willing to accept, and what must remain protected from it? 


Artworks (top to bottom, right to left): Phoebe Steen, Yilin Wong, Khalil Daterra, Alan Paddy, Drezzdon, Handsoutofpockets.
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