Documentation video 

Documentation video 




The hand has been a symbol of divine creation, power, and agency, shaping the world around us. Yet, as AI ascends, there is an ongoing tension between human agency and machine reliance, while the hands that sustain it remain hidden in the shadows.

In AI’s attempts to replicate hands, they are distorted, fragmented, and multiplied, unable to fully capture the mechanics of human autonomy; creating anomalies that expose both it’s presence in images and reliance on human recources.  

This installation speaks to the invisible human resource farms that fuel AI: anonymous hands whose clickwork tiresly power the digital ecosystem we celebrate with annotated data. Their undervalued labor is reflected in the distorted hands that signal AI’s need for Human Intelligence.

The work exposes the fractured reality of those whose hands are absorbed by the machine, discarded once their data is consumed, revealing a deeper struggle to grasp one another’s reality in the digital age.


    [Accompanying essay ’Handwerker; a human resource farm’ on request ︎]

    ‘’The relationship with my phone used to feel like a one-way relationship. But now it is getting more intelligent and is able to talk back sometimes. Swiping from advertisement to advertisement, I’m in a continuous feedback loop of who I consciously- but also unconsciously am. Or maybe; of who I should be?’’

This ongoing conversation is laid bare in a photobook novel, where brutally honest data is kept chronologically. The feedback loop manifests itself directly, with a huge delay, or not at all. It is not always clear what influences what, yet biases present themselves. In the narrative, elements like maintaining a healthy lifestyle, migration and being in a relationship are misconstrued as signs of pregnancy, contrary to reality. These assumptions found in the personalized ads, result in a distored self-perception. As the story unfolds, the ads seem to take sides, endorsing the partner's perspective in conflicts and subtly probing whether the user is trapped in a toxic relationship. Initially promoting casual alcohol consumption and dating, the ads gradually escalate to the point of advocating behaviors that result in liver problems and sexually transmitted diseases.

Over 770 million security cameras worldwide are watching over us. Even though, they are here to secure us from danger -like yet another god who is always by our side- it is easy to enter their minds and become a viewer through their eyes. While breaking into surveillance cameras, I started to feel empathy for them. I developed the tendency to recognize animalistic- and human traits in security systems. A sense of pareidolia might even occur to them -the security systems- as well. Seeing familiarities where there are none.

How do they view themselves? Who’s domesticating who?