The Golden Key

The Golden Key is an immersive installation by Marc Da Costa e Matthew Niederhauserwhich explores the mythopoietic potential of theartificial intelligence through a continuous interaction between audience and machine. The work is based on a academic database collecting and structuring fairy tales and myths from around the worldorganising them according to a taxonomy inspired by the natural sciences. From this basis, artificial intelligence generates epic and folk talesrecombined in real time from the suggestions provided by visitors.

Hosted in the Immersive Hall of MEET, the experience is set in a future marked by profound climatic and cultural changes: a dying world which leaves a legacy of narrative artefact as a threshold to a new collective memory. Visitors are not mere spectators, but become co-authors myths of the future, incorporating moods, questions and thoughts that are transformed into visual and audio narratives.

Awarded with the Jury Prize SXSW XR Experience 2024the work reflects on the conflicting narratives of AI - dystopia and utopia - and raises profound questions about the role of technology in cultural transmission. The installation represents a time capsulean invitation to Rethinking our relationship with myth, memory and artificial intelligence.