In Ghosts we trust
Interactive Installation Digital Culture Social/Urban Movements
The term “artificial intelligence” often conceals precarious human labour. All over the world, around the clock, workpeople labour on tasks of which we believe: Those are solely the computer’s doing. Sometimes they assist when the algorithm fails. More often, the work is still completely human – and not “artificial” at all. This phenomenon is called “ghost work” – spectre-like labour. Curator Inke Arns also denotes this as “artificial artificial intelligence”.
That is what this interactive installation by the OutOfTheBox group is about. The group conducted interviews about their invisible occupation with workers. The phenomenon becomes palpable for six players in an interactive installation. They sort images, evaluating comments while they earn minimal amounts in virtual currency. But what happens if the battery runs dry or the connection is severed?
The OutOfTheBox group consists of dramaturge Susanne Schuster and media artist Ricardo Gehn. With the aid of proprietary software and hardware, their audiences can try out scenarios of the digitised society.
reviews
cast
OutOfTheBox are, at the core, dramaturge Susanne Schuster and media artist Ricardo Gehn. They have been exploring the tension-filled relations between performance, media arts, and digital culture since 2017, with work bases in Lower Saxony, Berlin, and Hamburg. With the aid of proprietary software and hardware, they design speculative spaces of experience in which the participants can try out scenarios of the digitised society.
Concept and Artistic Direction: OutOfTheBox (Susanne Schuster, Ricardo Gehn). Direction Software: Ricardo Gehen. Assistance Software: Lena Biresch. Game Design and Hardware: Anton Kurt Krause. Dramaturgy and Communication: Tina Ebert. Assistance Dramaturgy and Production: Merle Mühlhausen. Assistance Equipment and Furnishings: Neïtah Janzing. Production Management: Susanne Schuster
credits
Co-produced with LOT-Theater Braunschweig. Support granted by: Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V., (Konzeptionsförderung/ Conception Grant), with funds provided by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, the Lower Saxonian Ministry for Science and Culture, Stiftung Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony Foundation).