MOD. Beyond Endings

MOD. developed the brief to design a year-long, unstaffed participatory gallery experience to build capability and engage young people aged 15-25 in ethical futures thinking around death technology and the ethics of a post-mortal society. The gallery experience needed to explore various ethical issues drawing on researcher input, approach endings and death with an uplifting and absurdist approach, and be accessible and engaging to the target audience. Visitors weren't just to be informed about ethics, they needed to be immersed and actively participate. Immersive world building and use of forward-looking technology was encouraged to make speculative futures tangible.

The creative team designed an innovative yet untested application of Metahuman AI technology, embedded in a speculative world that enhances visitor agency and immersivity in the theme. AI characters were framed as departmental figures in a fictional death technology corporation, interviewing visitors for jobs such as cryogenics technician or consciousness upload specialist. This enabled the Metahumans to guide the experience, whilst maintaining an ability to engage the visitor in open-ended, participatory and personalised ethical discussions. The development of this technology needed to embrace the unpredictability of AI to feel dynamic, while keeping the experience coherent and meaningful.

This project has been impactful in shaping the visitors and societal perspectives on the ethics of death technology, post-mortal society implications and the role of AI in the workforce. The design has transformed the visitor from passive observer to active participant. Rather than simply learning about AI and life-extension, they were prompted to consider their place in that future, grapple with ethical dilemmas, and reflect on their personal stance in a world where technology shapes human experience and AI could very possibly be their new boss.

Setting the gallery in a speculative future allowed visitors to step into a fictional world which enhanced and embedded ethical issues in an immersive and memorable format. The physical space supported immersion, with interview pods themed by department providing intimate settings for one-on-one conversations. Around the pods projection displays news headlines and departmental logs, reinforcing the narrative world beyond the booth. Metahumans hold a shared history, enabling them to speak knowledgably about their world and one another to create rich, believable dialogue. Visitors are ‘interviewed’ by metahumans for fictional roles at Eterna.Life. This narrative framing positions the AI as natural guides to the experience, giving them an in-world rationale for posing complex questions. Interviews were scaffolded to build the visitors conversational abilities, from multiple choice to open-ended prompts encouraging deeper ethical exploration. Utilising AI technology expanded the potential for personalised and participatory dialogue. Metahumans went beyond informing visitors about death technology to a two-way conversation where visitors were asked to decide their role in the ethics of this type of future. Conversations adapted to visitor interests, with in-built guardrails redirecting off-topic moments back to meaningful dialogue, creating a responsive, thought-provoking experience shaped by individual input.