5000x

Our increasingly smart devices are made by human hands. But how often, as we sit swiping, do we realise that somewhere, someone is testing the image quality of our tablets by doing nothing but taking thousands of selfies every day? To come to grips with such endlessly repetitious manufacturing tasks, Isabel Mager went in search of the human trace in our machines. By literally taking apart a laptop, she sought out this hidden evidence. With the installation ‘5000x’ she revalues the worker’s identity: as long as humans are the most adaptable machines, the idea of a fully automated production process remains pure fiction.