"The current political and social climate is both familiar and unknown, chaotic and programmatic, amnesiac and highly documented. The Last X Years is therefore both a mirror and a repository, on-going talk-radio from the vanishing past, a memory project that sits as a constant reminder of where the present came from." Jay Bernard
The Last X Years is a new digital project by artist and poet Jay Bernard.
Between 2021-2024, Bernard travelled around the UK interviewing people of all ages and backgrounds, asking what they remember about the 2016 EU referendum. Participants shared a range of perspectives and reflected on how they and the country changed during this turbulent time. These conversations sit at the heart of the project and are presented in a familiar broadcast format.
Determining the sequence of the broadcast is an AI that couples interview excerpts with a repository of news headlines published from 2016 onwards. Instructed to search the internet for articles relating to the referendum, the AI gathered thousands of stories that cover topics such as trade, migration, and sovereignty. The pairings are made based on the AI's assessment of the relevance between headline and interview. While ordinarily an AI would operate out of sight, the artwork simultaneously conceals and reveals its covert operations and unveils the pairing logic at play.
Between tabs marked 'voice', 'mirror', and 'memory', audiences can hear people's reflections, see the AI's logic, and explore the repository of interviews and headlines.
In The Last X Years, humans and machines are all participants. They are audible and silent, transmitters and receptors, active and activated. Through the project, Bernard brings together and makes apparent the many visible and invisible forces at play during that particular political moment.
The artist deliberately resists focussing on the new identities of ‘Brexiteer’ and ‘Remainer’ formed in the run up to the referendum that linger to this day. Instead, Bernard chooses to focus on creating a space where people can listen to and engage with perspectives outside of their own while reflecting on the ongoing deployment of digital technology in producing and disseminating information.