Virtual Worker Diaries (2022) targets the rise of virtual labor markets and crowdsourcing by illuminating the “layers of obfuscation” inherent to the anonymous exchanges. Artist Forest Kelley aims to criticize “wage standards, labor laws, lack of benefits, and moral alienation from the end product of one’s labor” by employing anonymous wage labor online to build stories. Despite appearing to be the stories of seven unique individuals, Kelley weaves in multiple layers of anonymity, sourcing the stories anonymously, as well as the narration and “forensic face composites.” Thus, the very existence of the video serves as a product of the anonymous labor market, targeting the ever-expanding gap between one’s personal connection to their work.
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Read a response to Virtual Worker Diaries here.
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Forest Kelley received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Art and Visual Studies in Lexington, Kentucky. He has shown internationally at galleries in Virginia, New York, Illinois, California, and Israel. In 2018, he also contributed music to the Academy Award-nominated and Criterion Collection-selected documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening for which he received the Best Music Score from the International Documentary Association.
