Presented at Automation Bias, during Illuminate Adelaide 2026, Studio ENESS’s interactive installation HP*ATM, Human Psyche AI Teller Machine draws attention to humanity’s relationship with AI by examining our growing willingness to share personal information to intelligent systems that claim to understand who we are. The experience begins with the choice to engage with the machine or walk away, the decision forms part of the machine’'s inquiry into consent and curiosity. Those who choose to proceed are guided through a sequence of facial analysis, palm scanning and button selections, which the system uses to create a poetic personalised profile delivered in horoscope format.
Whilst the reading deliberately echoes the language of traditional fortune-telling it is based on multiple forms of personal data collection and interpretation. Through the installation ENESS aims not to critique AI, but instead to invite visitors to reflect on their relationship with the technology. By turning the obsolete cash machine into an AI oracle, the installation employs a playful interaction to raise pointed questions such as ‘Why are we so willing to believe a machine's interpretation of who we are?’ And ‘when does a confident algorithm begin to feel more trustworthy than our own intuition?’.
The design of the installation wraps the ATM in an oversized inflatable shell featuring nostalgic graphic details like a landline telephone to juxtaposes obsolete technologies with today's AI boom. The retro aesthetics are used to remind us that every technology, no matter how revolutionary it once seemed, eventually becomes a relic.
