Driven by an interest in exploring and criticizing what labor has become in the information economy, Guido Segni has directed his attention to crowdworkers by turning them into actors in video performances and photography projects. In “24/7,” he focuses on the online marketplace Fiverr, in which freelancers advertise their services for one-off gigs. Initially set with a base price of $5 per gig, it has attracted many workers who carry out simple tasks for small amounts of money, under unequal labor conditions and with almost no rights to the products of their labor.
To create “24/7,” Segni ran a script for a week (24 hours over 7 days), scraping and downloading videos by the workers publicizing their services on fiverr.com. A selection of these clips is cut together into a long advertising video, to which the artist has added the tune of The Internationale, the socialist anthem that calls for the union of all workers. With a dose of irony, the artwork brings to light current forms of labor in conditions similar to those that led to the creation of workers’ movements. However, here there is no possibility of creating a union, as every individual seller must compete with others to complete tasks in order to get a few bucks.