Nico Daleman and Samuel Perea-Díaz,
Outsourcing (2024)
sound installation with built-in speakers in ceiling lights on wheels

 

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. Bringing the outsourcing of labour and intelligence into relation, Outsourcing is a multichannel sound installation that makes apparent the resulting ecology of exploitation, delegation, and agency.

A generative soundscape of AI-generated call centres and office environments is translated through machine-listening algorithms into light and sound impulses. Neon ceiling lamps function as resonant boxes and allude to the architectural obsolescence of overcrowded work environments. LED configurations point to the absence of neon rods amid newer technologies of digital and virtual labour. Headsets enable visitors to experience the sound environment and influence the outcome of the installation. By thus 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.