bodyproxy.io
"Body Proxy" speculates that AI’s coming instrumentalization of the world will necessitate human embodiment. Collapsing the gig economy and agentic tool-use, the piece questions a future in which the human is no longer a user, but an interface — wetware executing commands the software cannot.
The Experience
Debuting as a physical installation at SXSW 2026, the project is framed as a start-up onboarding — part casting call, part IPO (“Initial Person Offering”). Recruits don AI glasses and enter a market where their physical agency is the asset. Assessed by AIs that treat the body as a peripheral device, participants enact algorithmic choreographies where props serve as test vectors and compliance becomes a site of improvisation.
Everything you do, or don’t do, in the experience is optional, inviting participants to explore how easily we slip into the mode of following directions, and how we are increasingly offloading our own cognition.
After completing the onboarding, proxies are given QR codes linking to their new “Proxy Profile” (example 1, example 2).
"Body Proxy" is not a tech demo. It aims to let people directly explore, engage, and reflect on the uncomfortable seams of these new systems, and the ways they are quickly becoming integrated into daily life.