LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Hammer Museum is presenting NOX High-Rise, an immersive multi-gallery installation by London-based artist Lawrence Lek. Threading together narratively linked videos, sound, and objects across three distinct zones, NOX High-Rise delves into the advanced integration of AI entities in urban life and reflects on questions of agency, ethics, and empathy between humans and machines.

Known for his episodic storytelling, Lek blends narrative soundscapes and sci-fi mythologies with elements of game design, film, architecture, and engineering. Lek amasses a body of work across various media and exhibitions to create a vast narrative network. In 2023 he presented NOX at the LAS Art Foundation in Berlin, filling three floors with the first chapter in his Sinofuturist universe. The Hammer’s presentation of NOX High-Rise marks the next phase of the project, which probes the problems and promises of AI in an age of automation.

In the installation’s fictional universe, NOX, short for "Nonhuman Excellence," is a therapeutic center controlled by Farsight Corporation—a fictional AI conglomerate—where sentient self-driving cars with mental health problems undergo treatment, including equine therapy with real horses, before being returned for service. Lek’s work considers the ethical and political implications of the development of artificial consciousness in a world shared by humans, more-than-humans. and machines.

Lawrence Lek: NOX High-Rise is on view at the Hammer June 28–November 16.

Lawrence Lek is an artist, filmmaker and musician working in the fields of virtual reality and simulation. He explores worldbuilding as a form of multidimensional collage that can incorporate elements from both material and virtual worlds. His work develops narratives that reflect on alternate histories and possible futures. Previous chapters of his Sinofuturist cinematic universe include the CGI feature film AIDOL (2019), the open-world game series 2065 (2018-ongoing), the AI-coming-of-age story Geomancer (2017) and the video essay Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD) (2016). Recent solo exhibitions include QUAD, Derby (2022–3); ZiWU The Bund, Shanghai (2022); HEK House of Electronic Arts, Basel (2019); arebyte, London (2018); and K11 art space, Hong Kong (2018). Lek lives and works in London.