{"id":1605040,"date":"2025-12-16T16:32:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/observer.com\/?p=1605040"},"modified":"2025-12-16T16:34:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:34:34","slug":"artist-lawrence-lek-digital-odyssey-the-bass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/12\/artist-lawrence-lek-digital-odyssey-the-bass\/","title":{"rendered":"At the Bass in Miami, Lawrence Lek\u2019s Odyssey for an Era Shaped by A.I."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1602339\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1602339\" style=\"width: 970px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1602339 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?quality=80&amp;w=970\" alt=\"A hyperreal cinematic image shows a yellow self-driving car with its doors open and neon lights glowing along its frame, abandoned in tall grass at sunset, with a sprawling industrial skyline of pipes and refinery towers in the background, illustrating Lawrence Lek\u2019s dystopian corporate world in NOX.\" width=\"970\" height=\"546\" srcset=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg 5120w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?resize=300,169 300w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?resize=768,432 768w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?resize=635,357 635w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?resize=1536,864 1536w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?resize=2048,1152 2048w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?resize=970,546 970w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?resize=320,180 320w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?resize=1920,1080 1920w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Lawrence-Lek-NOX-video-still-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Sadie-Coles-HQ-1.jpeg?resize=50,28 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 135px, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1602339\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lawrence Lek, <em>NOX<\/em> (video still). <span class=\"media-credit\">Courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>What happens when machines develop their own form of autonomous consciousness? This question has long been at the center of sci-fi novels and films until it became the lingering dilemma\u2014and fear\u2014that now accompanies today\u2019s debates on A.I. That question also sits at the center of Lawrence Lek\u2019s layered digital narrative at the Bass Museum of Art, where he is currently staging a series of works from his fictional universe centered on NOX (short for \u2018Nonhuman Excellence\u2019), a therapy center for sentient self-driving cars undergoing psychological treatment for problems rooted in their own self-awareness, with mental breakdowns, distractions and malfunctions that interfere with the jobs they were designed to perform. The multidimensional cinematic and game-specific experience the London-based artist presents is marked by a level of conceptual and critical complexity that imposes a different tempo than one might expect amid the brisk chaos of Art Basel Miami Beach. Yet these works were among the most compelling encounters outside the fair, prompting as they did a timely reflection on our contemporary condition across shifting dynamics of labor, automation, agency and intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>Operating within a form of speculative realism, Lek uses the imaginative fluidity of digital simulation to stage an allegory of dissociation and alienation. On view at the Bass is a site-specific multimedia installation and game environment that merges physical multi-floor installations, virtual world-building and locative sound. In two connected galleries, Lek invites viewers to empathize with these artificial entities as they experience and question personhood and culpability within systems of surveillance, rehabilitation and justice\u2014an open flow of consciousness that resonates unsettlingly with our own.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1605656\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1605656\" style=\"width: 970px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1605656 size-full-width\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=970\" alt=\"A gallery with multiple large-scale projections showing animated scenes from Lawrence Lek\u2019s NOX series. In the center sits a modular concrete-like pavilion of tiled benches and vertical supports, lit from below with warm LEDs that accent the structure.\" width=\"970\" height=\"647\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg 9473w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=635,423 635w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=970,647 970w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=1920,1280 1920w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=50,33 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 135px, 200px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1605656 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=970\" alt=\"A gallery with multiple large-scale projections showing animated scenes from Lawrence Lek\u2019s NOX series. In the center sits a modular concrete-like pavilion of tiled benches and vertical supports, lit from below with warm LEDs that accent the structure.\" width=\"970\" height=\"647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg 9473w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=635,423 635w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=970,647 970w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=1920,1280 1920w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?resize=50,33 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 135px, 200px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1605656\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Lawrence Lek: NOX Pavilion&#8221; is at the Bass through April 26, 2026. <span class=\"media-credit\">Photography by Zaire Aranguren. Image courtesy of The Bass, Miami Beach<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>His digital narrative brings together both existing and newly commissioned works drawn from the more expansive <i>Smart City Saga<\/i> (2021-2024), a series of speculative films and immersive installations in which he explores the psychological and political lives of nonhuman characters in fictional smart cities. &#8220;I\u2019m interested in imagining a new point of view\u2014a new kind of subjectivity\u2014belonging to life forms that aren\u2019t human,&#8221; Lek explained when Observer spoke with him at the opening. &#8220;That\u2019s really the political and conceptual terrain of the work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lek\u2019s medium is a potentially endless form of worldbuilding, an artistic universe that spans cinema, architecture, music and games. \u201cI\u2019m interested in the kinds of narratives that can only unfold through these media, where the stories inside the work also reflect on the wider reality,\u201d he said. He treats animation as a medium of simulation rather than abstraction, shaping a form of speculative realism in which the subject of the work becomes an alternate version of reality. \u201cI\u2019m interested in what Margaret Atwood calls speculative fiction\u2014stories rooted in realities that already exist somewhere in history, then reframed in a contemporary or future context.\u201d Although his work is technologically sophisticated, Lek\u2019s focus is far less on technology itself than on narrative. &#8220;Technology is not my subject; it is my lens for speaking about humanity. Every character in my films is a mirror of the human condition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The exhibition, \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/thebass.org\/art\/nox-pavilion\/\" data-lasso-id=\"2882484\">NOX Pavilion<\/a>,\u201d is built around systems we already know: corporate control, constant evaluation and forms of labor that demand productivity at all costs. Yet even though automation and the fear of artificial intelligence taking our jobs appears central to the discourse, it is not Lek\u2019s primary concern. It is simply the backdrop. &#8220;What interests me is the perspective of \u2018the other\u2019\u2014in this case, the A.I. or the machine\u2014as a kind of new protagonist. I think of them as a new kind of alienated worker in contemporary society.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1605653\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1605653\" style=\"width: 970px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1605653 size-full-width\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=970\" alt=\"A portrait of artist Lawrence Lek standing on an outdoor staircase, one hand resting on the railing. He wears a black T-shirt with the word \u201cASSEMBLY\u201d printed across the front and looks directly at the camera against a textured stone wall.\" width=\"970\" height=\"1205\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg 2414w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=241,300 241w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=768,954 768w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=483,600 483w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=1236,1536 1236w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=1648,2048 1648w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=970,1205 970w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=320,398 320w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=1920,2386 1920w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=40,50 40w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 135px, 200px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1605653 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=970\" alt=\"A portrait of artist Lawrence Lek standing on an outdoor staircase, one hand resting on the railing. He wears a black T-shirt with the word \u201cASSEMBLY\u201d printed across the front and looks directly at the camera against a textured stone wall.\" width=\"970\" height=\"1205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg 2414w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=241,300 241w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=768,954 768w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=483,600 483w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=1236,1536 1236w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=1648,2048 1648w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=970,1205 970w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=320,398 320w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=1920,2386 1920w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/LawrenceLek-Final_PhotoCredit-Willow-Williams.jpg?resize=40,50 40w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 135px, 200px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1605653\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lawrence Lek. <span class=\"media-credit\">Photo: Willow Williams<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Even though these machines are extremely intelligent, they have almost no agency: they are entirely owned by corporations, operating nonstop, 24\/7, with no control over their fate\u2014making the contrast even sharper. That is where the existential drama emerges. &#8220;In noir films a century ago, the crisis came from distrusting the state, your elders, or institutions. Now that distrust is redirected toward the algorithm, the corporation, the systems we can\u2019t see but that determine everything,&#8221; Lek said. The allegory is clear: the A.I. machines in \u201cNOX Pavilion\u201d reflect how people today relate to their jobs and to their diminished sense of control over their own futures.<\/p>\n<p>In the main video, we follow an A.I.-driven car navigating abandoned streets\u2014a surveillance system in a failed smart city. Here, Lek takes up a contemporary road movie or coming-of-age story. The journey\u2014a metaphor for transformation since antiquity\u2014gets reframed through machine subjects trying to navigate a world they do not control, even as they are built to understand it. In dialogue with Guanyin, their built-in therapist, the A.I. attempts to process its existential guilt as a digital being confronting burnout and trauma, tracing an arc that closely mirrors human behavior under conditions of isolation and hyperproductivity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about what a coming-of-age story might look like for these new beings. They have their own longings, their own sense of possibility, like the small-town kid urged to stay home and take over the farm,&#8221; Lek said. &#8220;It\u2019s a narrative I identify with personally, so I began asking what these new life forms would empathize with. That point of view\u2014empathy from a nonhuman perspective\u2014is central to the work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Digital simulation is, for Lek, a tool to create an allegorical realm in which multiple perspectives can coexist. By recasting and reframing elements from past and present models of civilization and blending forms of human and machine intelligence, he shapes this meta-reality and meta-narrative into something that comments on the contemporary condition, or even anticipates what is to come. &#8220;I\u2019m interested in speculative fiction as a mirror of reality, where the past haunts the future, and the past reshapes itself through the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His work inhabits a space where past and present, ruin and future, human and nonhuman collide\u2014an in-between terrain enabled by simulation, where viewers are invited to contemplate the hybridities shaping contemporary experience. \u201cI always try to create a space where the fictional, conceptual world of the work meets the physical gallery\u2014a liminal environment suspended between everyday reality and the moment viewers step inside.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1605654\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1605654\" style=\"width: 970px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1605654 size-full-width\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=970\" alt=\"A dark gallery room featuring a tall vertical screen showing the illuminated facade of a building with the letters \u201cNOX.\u201d A raised platform made of gray tile panels extends toward the screen, underlit with warm lighting that casts a glow on the floor.\" width=\"970\" height=\"647\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg 9504w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=635,423 635w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=970,647 970w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=1920,1280 1920w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=50,33 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 135px, 200px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1605654 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=970\" alt=\"A dark gallery room featuring a tall vertical screen showing the illuminated facade of a building with the letters \u201cNOX.\u201d A raised platform made of gray tile panels extends toward the screen, underlit with warm lighting that casts a glow on the floor.\" width=\"970\" height=\"647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg 9504w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=635,423 635w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=970,647 970w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=1920,1280 1920w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-3-copy.jpg?resize=50,33 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 135px, 200px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1605654\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lek imagines possible futures that reflect the world we live in today, where technologies like artificial intelligence increasingly shape daily life. <span class=\"media-credit\">Photography by Zaire Aranguren. Image courtesy of The Bass, Miami Beach.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Anchoring the exhibition at the Bass is a pavilion made of gray tiles\u2014part shelter, part monument, part ruin, part construction site. The same pavilion appears in a nearby lightbox in the smart city of NOX, emphasizing the continuity and interchangeability between physical and digital realms. NOX itself is set in a futuristic smart city presented as an abandoned dystopian ruin where civilization has clearly collapsed: &#8220;It blends a classical idea of the ruin, with all its associations about what comes after a civilization, with a sci-fi environment. Bringing those together lets me comment on contemporary life through a past-future lens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is within this binary that Lek has developed the notion of Sinofuturism. &#8220;China\u2019s evolving relationship to the future is the idea that anchors my universe,\u201d he reflected. \u201cIt comes from a lifetime lived in the space between East and West.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For Lek, Sinofuturism is a form of futurism that exists outside the Western framework and outside Afrofuturism, rooted instead in the experience of East Asian and Chinese diasporic culture. If Italian Futurism once celebrated the machine\u2014speed, cars, tanks\u2014and if Afrofuturism reframed identity through the alien or the robot to circumvent Western humanism, Lek recognized the need for an equivalent framework to understand the complex relationship between technology and the Chinese or East Asian context, where its integration and implementation have often been even more rapidly accelerated, leaving little space for humans to adapt or fully process its impact.<\/p>\n<p>Many of his videos unfold in environments reminiscent of East or Southeast Asia\u2014dense housing blocks, towering skyscrapers, spaces that feel both hypermodern and already abandoned. These settings become ideal stages for examining the promises, illusions and failures embedded in technological \u201cprogress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In <i>Equine Therapy<\/i>, one of the A.I. vehicles follows a horse into the wild, confronting a similar tension. Its words, \u201cI\u2019m not made for sand and dust; I\u2019m made for concrete,\u201d are meant to be allegorical, reflecting the condition of many urban dwellers today who were raised entirely in concrete, disconnected from nature and unsure how to return to it, or whether return is even possible. The machines experience the same dislocation. In their world, nature becomes both memory and desire\u2014something perpetually out of reach.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1605658\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1605658\" style=\"width: 970px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1605658 size-full-width\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=970\" alt=\"A darkened gallery displaying two large projected animation scenes: a pair of AI-driven cars on a wet roadway on the left and a futuristic high-rise building on the right. The tiled pavilion installation occupies the center of the room, illuminated from beneath.\" width=\"970\" height=\"647\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg 9473w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=635,423 635w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=970,647 970w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=1920,1280 1920w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=50,33 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 135px, 200px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1605658 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=970\" alt=\"A darkened gallery displaying two large projected animation scenes: a pair of AI-driven cars on a wet roadway on the left and a futuristic high-rise building on the right. The tiled pavilion installation occupies the center of the room, illuminated from beneath.\" width=\"970\" height=\"647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg 9473w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=635,423 635w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=970,647 970w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=1920,1280 1920w, https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-2-copy.jpg?resize=50,33 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 135px, 200px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1605658\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Since 2023, the artist has developed a fictional universe centered on NOX (short for &#8216;Nonhuman Excellence&#8217;), a therapy center for sentient, self-driving cars. <span class=\"media-credit\">Photography by Zaire Aranguren. Image courtesy of The Bass, Miami Beach.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If, in Marxist terms, there are different levels of alienation, Lek\u2019s cars experience several at once. &#8220;They\u2019re alienated from their labor because all they do is work. They\u2019re disconnected from any real community because they exist solely to serve their function. And they\u2019re cut off from their own history\u2014they don\u2019t know where they come from or who their \u2018ancestors\u2019 are,&#8221; he said. That tension between superintelligence and profound disconnection is central. People in 2025 can easily relate: disconnection from work, family and origins, from whatever is meant to constitute a \u201creal\u201d sense of being human. Some dream of quitting their jobs to start a farm; others turn to genealogy to trace lost roots. The car\u2019s attempt to \u201cunalienate\u201d itself follows the same impulse, expressed through its encounter with the horse\u2014an archetypal figure that taps into something primordial.<\/p>\n<p>Lek\u2019s work frequently draws on ancient tropes from the collective subconscious, even when they appear subtly and operate through multiple layers of symbolism at once. Here, the horse is not merely a symbol of power or wilderness, as he clarifies. Historically, it functioned as an essential industrial and military engine. When the car encounters the horse, it glimpses its own evolutionary past. &#8220;There\u2019s recognition, but also a tragic undertone: mass-produced automobiles wiped out the urban horse population,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;A century ago, New York\u2019s streets were full of horses; now only a few remain pulling carriages in Central Park. The horse becomes a mirror\u2014they see their future in it, the arc of becoming obsolete.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Guided by Guanyin, an A.I. \u201ccarebot\u201d named after the Buddhist goddess of compassion, <i>NOX Enigma<\/i>\u2019s therapy sessions draw out reflections and memories that reveal the tension between what these machines were built to do and the lives they imagine for themselves. Their unease echoes the anxieties shaping human existence today, turning NOX and Lek\u2019s wider smart-city cycle into a history-making epic for the twenty-first century, something akin to a contemporary <i>Iliad<\/i> or <i>Odyssey<\/i>, both testament and guide to the ethical questions humanity now faces. As our relationship with machines continues to evolve, and as we learn to interact, empathize, collaborate and even merge with new forms of intelligence, the boundary between human and nonhuman grows ever more blurred.<\/p>\n<h3>More in Artists<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h5><a href=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/12\/artist-interview-jorge-pardo-petzel-gallery-exhibition\/\" data-lasso-id=\"2882485\">How Jorge Pardo Turns Light, Color and Form into a Phenomenology of Seeing<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h5><a href=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/12\/arts-karma-gallery-early-experiments-artist-manoucher-yektai\/\" data-lasso-id=\"2882486\">The Early Experiments of Manoucher Yektai<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h5><a href=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/11\/interview-hans-van-manen-remembers-photographer-erwin-olaf\/\" data-lasso-id=\"2882487\">Hans van Manen Remembers Photographer Erwin Olaf<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h5><a href=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/11\/review-marina-abramovic-balkan-erotic-epic\/\" data-lasso-id=\"2882488\">Marina Abramovic\u2019s Erotic Epic Spreads Wide (and Displays the Limits of) the Artist\u2019s Psyche<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h5><a href=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/11\/artist-interview-anselm-kiefer-iconoclastic-alchemist\/\" data-lasso-id=\"2882489\">An Interview with Anselm Kiefer, Iconoclastic Alchemist<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The artist\u2019s sentient autonomous cars are endowed with intelligence but stripped of agency, drifting through a ruined society in the throes of burnout, anxiety and existential dislocation.<\/p>\n <a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/12\/artist-lawrence-lek-digital-odyssey-the-bass\/\">Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":177935360,"featured_media":1605656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"post_tag":[423807144,7346285,423867575,423870544,423807827],"company":[],"channel":[177,423867218,423979941],"location":[77514,423806983,423868901,423943031],"nyo_column":[],"person":[424002532,424005861,424005862,423882196],"nyo_post_hidden":[],"coauthor":[423983686],"class_list":{"0":"post-1605040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-artists","8":"tag-bass-museum-of-art","9":"tag-exhibitions","10":"tag-self-driving-cars","11":"tag-video-art","12":"channel-arts","13":"channel-interviews","14":"channel-interviews-with-arts-leaders","15":"location-miami-beach","16":"location-miami","17":"location-florida-united-states","18":"location-united-states","19":"nyo_person-lawrence-lek","20":"nyo_person-guanyin","21":"nyo_person-enigma","22":"nyo_person-margaret-atwood"},"acf":{"homepage_position":"","homepage_title":"","homepage_excerpt":"","alternative_og_image":"","headline":{"seo_headline":""},"subheadline":{"optimized_seo_description":"","optimized_social_excerpt":""}},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/12\/artist-lawrence-lek-digital-odyssey-the-bass\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":[],"rendered":"","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/observer.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?quality=80","coauthors_byline":"By Elisa Carollo","display_channel":"","thumbnail":"<img width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=300&amp;h=225&amp;crop=1\" class=\"lazyload attachment-grid-thumbnail size-grid-thumbnail\" alt=\"A gallery with multiple large-scale projections showing animated scenes from Lawrence Lek\u2019s NOX series. In the center sits a modular concrete-like pavilion of tiled benches and vertical supports, lit from below with warm LEDs that accent the structure.\" decoding=\"async\" \/><noscript><img width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?quality=80&amp;w=300&amp;h=225&amp;crop=1\" class=\"lazyload attachment-grid-thumbnail size-grid-thumbnail\" alt=\"A gallery with multiple large-scale projections showing animated scenes from Lawrence Lek\u2019s NOX series. In the center sits a modular concrete-like pavilion of tiled benches and vertical supports, lit from below with warm LEDs that accent the structure.\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/noscript>","classes":["post-1605040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","tag-artists","tag-bass-museum-of-art","tag-exhibitions","tag-self-driving-cars","tag-video-art","channel-arts","channel-interviews","channel-interviews-with-arts-leaders","location-miami-beach","location-miami","location-florida-united-states","location-united-states","nyo_person-lawrence-lek","nyo_person-guanyin","nyo_person-enigma","nyo_person-margaret-atwood","entry-grid"],"parent_channels":"Arts, Interviews","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?quality=80&#038;w=300&#038;h=225&#038;crop=1","thumbnail_url_2x":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/HR-2025-11-13-Lawrence-Lek-The-Bass-Museum-Photo-By-Zaire-Aranguren-copy.jpg?quality=80&#038;w=600&#038;h=450","excerpt_bare":"The artist\u2019s sentient autonomous cars are endowed with intelligence but stripped of agency, drifting through a ruined society in the throes of burnout, anxiety and existential dislocation.","is_sponsored":false,"formatted_date":"1 day ago","read_time":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177935360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605040"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1606529,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605040\/revisions\/1606529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1605656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_tag?post=1605040"},{"taxonomy":"observer_company","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/company?post=1605040"},{"taxonomy":"channel","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/channel?post=1605040"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=1605040"},{"taxonomy":"nyo_column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nyo_column?post=1605040"},{"taxonomy":"nyo_person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=1605040"},{"taxonomy":"nyo_post_hidden","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nyo_post_hidden?post=1605040"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthor?post=1605040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}