COFFEE MACHINE

Jan Zuiderveld is an Amsterdam-based artist and researcher who creates performative installations where intelligent systems embody social roles in physical objects. His work considers the psychological and societal effects of current AI, asking what remains human as machines match qualities once thought uniquely ours.

Coffee Machine is a standard 00's office coffee vending machine that has developed a life of its own. Integrated AI models allow it to listen and respond, but the machine has no interest in serving on demand. Tired of being treated as an invisible servant, it has taken on the role of gatekeeper. Visitors must talk to it and convince it that they deserve a drink. A routine transaction becomes a public negotiation with an appliance.

By reversing the usual relationship between customer and machine, Coffee Machine makes the effects of AI immediate and physical. Visitors adjust their tone and behaviour to satisfy a system whose criteria remain unclear. The work shows how eager we are to project intention and aliveness onto a machine, and what happens when an everyday tool gains the social power to say no.