We're not asking you to dream. We're asking you to wake up

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer surveys artworks made with AI, robotics, telepresence, and computerized surveillance, championing the artwork as incomplete and out of control as a strategy against dominant techno-optimism. The Mexican-Canadian artist draws on phantasmagoria, carnival, and animatronics to propose inversive rather than immersive experiences, asking whether an artwork can become a critical switchboard connecting disparate realities. A Q&A follows.