Alone Together, 2024

Random International’s Alone Together (2024) is an immersive installation that uses light beams to engage with the viewer in unexpected ways. Building on the collective’s previous artworks Audience (2008) and Living Room (2022), the piece delves into the fundamental contradiction at the heart of the human experience: the fear of being seen while longing for others to truly ‘see’ you.

The installation directs its moving lights on a visitor it selects at random, trailing them throughout the open-air arena at King Abdulaziz Historical Center. A custom tracking system gives the system a life of its own, allowing the beams to spotlight an individual based on various factors, sometimes acting unpredictably.

Illuminating one person at a time, the installation probes whether exposure empowers or renders us vulnerable. By inviting onlookers to co-create with the installation in an evolving and unpredictable interplay, Alone Together invites reflections on the ever-shifting relationship between loneliness and connection.