The systems that recognise faces, drive cars or answer questions today learned from millions of people working from home for cents per task, in Nairobi, Maracaibo, Manila or Montcada i Reixac. Phantograph tells that story, from the chess-playing automaton of 1770 to the closure of Mechanical Turk in September 2026, and puts the visitor to work. They receive the identity of a person from Kenya, Venezuela, the Philippines, the United States or Spain, with their voice, and race the clock through real industry tasks, from drawing boxes on photos to folding clothes in front of a camera that tracks their hands and places 3D objects in them. At the end, a printer hands them a receipt for what they would have earned.
The project draws on the work of Data Workers’ Inquiry and the Data Labelers Association in Nairobi and on Anna Giralt Gris’s research into data work, and grows out of her scripts HIT and La condición humana.
Set-up. A small room with a desk, a screen with a camera, a directional speaker, a receipt printer and two projectors, one for the back wall and one over the desk. It runs without gallery staff and records nothing.
Status. In production. Ready for exhibition in early 2027.
Director and writer:
Anna Giralt Gris
Images: screenshots of the Phantograph website. Home: photos from COCO val2017 and Wikimedia Commons, CC licences. Cut: photo by GioRan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; board from Poly Haven, CC0. Stir: photo by daniablr, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; pot and spoon from Poly Haven, CC0. Iron: photo by Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Fold: photo by Artchapiz, CC0, Wikimedia Commons.
Amb el suport de l’Institut de Cultura de Barcelona
