Georgia Banks makes performance art even when you think she doesn’t. Her most interesting work won’t happen until after she’s dead – she hopes it’s good but will never know. Banks has been banned from Tinder, sued by the estate of Hannah Wilke, and awarded Miss Social Impact in a national beauty pageant. She would like to go viral, break a Guinness World Record, and be in an actual episode of Black Mirror instead of making her own. Georgia’s never had a filling nor broken a bone (although she has been crucified) and once was convinced she’d accidentally sliced away a part of her labia during a performance (she hadn’t).

Georgia Banks, DataBases (Video Still), 2023, Videography by David Meagher.

Tell us about your experience with ANAT SPECTRA

I remember I was building Gee, and I spoke at ANAT SPECTRA 2022 with my collaborator, Dr Jey Han Lau at University of Melbourne. She was really new, she wasn’t finished, and I did a demo where I invited the other people attending to give me questions to ask her. I remember somebody wanted me to ask her about films or something, I can’t remember her response, but I remember the person saying something like ‘Oh she’s so much like you’, but they didn’t know me? I just found that response to her so incredibly fascinating. It was the first time anybody had ever spoken to Gee other than myself and the people that were helping me build her. It was a really formative experience between Gee and the public. And it helped me feel a lot less nervous about her because I realised how good we are at filling in gaps when it comes to these sorts of AI projects – we want them to be good or to be impressed by how human they are, and so we let them be, we willingly suspend disbelief. Having said hasn’t that AI changed exponentially since 2022! It’s rather terrifying if I do say so myself haha. Gee will be my boss one day. 

Georgia Banks, Remains to be Seen, Gertrude Glasshouse Installation Image, 2021, Photography by Christian Capurro.

What or who inspires you in the realm of interdisciplinary practice, and why?

Like other artists? I’m probably not going to say anything very interesting I’m afraid. I like Jordan Wolfson’s work, I think Willoh Weiland’s Nokia phone funeral was fabulous, oh I love Kiron Robinson’s Crawling Man Project, it’s so stark and true. I don’t really like work that postures too much, or hides behind too many layers of intellect and academia. I think work is the best when it’s honest and upfront. I’m not sure if I’ve answered this question very well, but those are three artists whose work I like, and they all use technology in really interesting ways, but also the performance of self. Which makes sense, that is where my work sits as well.

Name a cultural work (film, book, music etc) that inspired or challenged your creative perspective, and tell us why.

I mean easy answer is Black Mirror, isn’t it? Black Mirror’s on my mind most days haha – I actually just wrote an entire choose your own essay about different episodes of that show, comparing them to real world technologies that mirror the technologies in the show. So like for example Nosedive and Uber (the only app that rates you back). Hang the DJ and Tinder of course. I’ve often referred to my practice as Black Mirror meets The Bachelor haha. I think its influences on my practice are quite clear – if anybody reading this happens to know Charlie Brooker can you please tell him to hire me? I actually think a reality tv focussed episode is long overdue and I’m the right person for the job!

Anna Sorokina (Delvey) at home in 2022. Image Creative Commons.

If you could collaborate with any figure from history or contemporary culture, who would it be and why?

Oh my goodness tell you what I would love to collaborate with Anna Delvey. She’s a performance artwork in and of herself. And her Dancing with the Stars stint is one the strangest reality tv occurrences I’ve ever witnessed. She’s almost like Amalia Ulman taken to the most extreme conclusion. What would we do together though? Swap lives, gaslight everybody we know? Some kind of highly illegal crypto crime? Shoot a CEO? The options are endless…

Georgia Banks, Remains to be Seen, Promotion Image & Billboard, 2021, Photography by Kerry Leonard.

What’s next? Tell us about your next project, collaboration or thinking.

Something I’m really interested in at the moment is what I’ve been calling ‘legacy leeching’, but it’s essentially taking the concept of hypersentimentalism and applying it specifically to death and legacy. I’m ever so interested in inserting myself into the work of other artists (not in an unfriendly way). Andy Warhol has been occupying my thoughts rather a lot. I think he may have invented reality television, truth be told. And he had this expanded performance practice that I don’t think has been properly acknowledged. I think he may simultaneously be the most overrated and underrated artist of all time. I’m planning a trip to Pittsburgh at the moment to do some work with his archive at the Andy Warhol Museum. And do you all know about his grave livestream? I’m obsessed.