Outsourcing (2024)
sound installation with built-in speakers in ceiling lights on wheels
in collaboration with Nico Daleman
Outsourcing is a multichannel sound installation that reinterprets the dynamics of labour redistribution as sensible hierarchical structures between humans and machines. Starting in the 1980s, many English-speaking Western companies outsourced customer service jobs to former British colonies including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, where labour costs are lower and regulatory frameworks more relaxed. Today, companies are taking advantage of information technology business process outsourcing (IT BPO) to replace human customer services and personal assistants with artificial intelligence. Delegation and agency enter into an ecology of labour and exploitation that becomes apparent in this installation.
A generative soundscape of AI-synthesized call centres and office environments is translated through machine-listening algorithms into light and sound impulses. Enclosures of obsolete neon ceiling lights function as resonant boxes that refer to the architectural and physical environments of overcrowded offices. The absence of neon bars is replaced by digitally controllable LEDs, enhancing the contradiction between obsolete materials and newer technologies. Headsets enable visitors to experience the sound environment and influence the outcome of the installation. Thus, by outsourcing the job of creating its composition to the public, the work is a critique of labour redistribution practices: the artists provide the means of production, while visitors can provide their labour to create value for the artists.