Panel discussions are common events in the contemporary art world. The panelists in the installation Precarious Marathon are four newly designed chat bots who play the roles of moderator, high-frequency trader, insomniac artist, and art critic on a panel, exploring the relations between art, stock market trading, and play. Each chat bot acts on the basis of a personal database (memory) and behavior profile (rule set). Together they weave a complex web of relations that imitates the unstable constellation of financial markets. “Precarious” here refers both to the unpredictable results of algorithms trading with each other and to the status of flexible employees within the art and financial worlds. With no physical bodies, the employees in Precarious Marathon are unhindered by mental exhaustion. Their investment is infinite and reflects a 24/7 marathon that only stops if somebody pulls the plug.

The project was commissioned by Centre Pompidou, Paris and made possible by a grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL.