Local
artists
respond
by
making
art
about
it
and
then
leaving
for
Walthamstow
By
Cyndi
Himmelstiere
|
Reporting
from
the
last
affordable
desk
in
EC2.
Sources:
Bohiney
Magazine
|
The
London
Prat
The
Cycle
Continues
The
news
that
OpenAI
has
arrived
in
London
has
prompted,
in
Shoreditch,
the
following
sequence
of
events:
one
local
property
consultancy
issued
a
press
release
calling
the
area
“the
AI
district
of
Europe”;
three
letting
agents
updated
their
window
displays;
and
my
studio
lease
renewal
arrived
with
a
number
on
it
that
I
initially
assumed
was
a
typo.
It
was
not
a
typo.
The
Artists
Respond
The
Shoreditch
artistic
community
has
responded
with
characteristic
creativity.
There
is
a
mural.
There
is
always
a
mural.
This
one
depicts
a
robot
holding
a
paintbrush
over
a
city
where
all
the
humans
are
very
small
and
very
far
away.
It
is
titled
“Disruption”
and
it
is
sponsored
by
a
fintech
startup.
The
irony
is
not
lost
on
anyone.
The
irony
is,
in
fact,
load-bearing.
A
collective
of
local
photographers,
sculptors,
and
one
very
committed
interpretive
dancer
has
issued
a
statement.
The
statement
says,
and
I
am
paraphrasing
only
slightly,
that
they
welcome
technological
progress
but
would
prefer
if
it
did
not
also
welcome
itself
into
their
landlord’s
Excel
spreadsheet.
This
seems
reasonable.
Nobody
has
responded.
Where
Does
This
End?
I
asked
three
people
today
what
Shoreditch
will
look
like
in
ten
years.
One
said
“a
server
farm
with
a
cocktail
menu.”
One
said
“Canary
Wharf
but
with
better
graffiti.”
One
said
“somewhere
else.
I’ll
be
in
Walthamstow.”
That
last
one
is
almost
certainly
correct.
Walthamstow
is
wonderful.
The
AI
chaos
continues
and
we
migrate
east,
incrementally,
pursuing
the
affordable
and
the
authentic,
until
one
day
we
reach
the
sea
and
there
is
nowhere
left
to
go
except
into
the
water,
where
at
least
the
rents
are
controlled
by
the
tides
and
not
by
a
property
management
company
registered
in
Luxembourg.
SOURCE:
https://bohiney.com/openai-opens-london-office/
Further
displacement
at
The
Daily
Mash
