Fintech for the Precariat
digital video (3840 x 2160), color, sound, 11’ 37”, 2017, United States
video documentation of an immersive world application
Created by Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga, 2021
February 18 - March 3 2022
Introduced by Matteo Bittanti
FinTech for the Precariat is an immersive urban environment populated by Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, gig workers and twelve voices from New York City’s financial spectrum. As the user wanders around this environment, she stumbles upon its inhabitants — from financial brokers to recent college grads to computer programmers and cultural workers —, gaining an understanding of their financial perspectives. It has been projected that the 2020s will be the decade of the “FinTech Revolution”. This marketing hyperbole is on the heels of many such revolutions sold on the broken promises of democratization and prosperity for all. FinTech for the Precariat asks a simple question: Who are the winners and losers in this “game”?
Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga is a new media artist. He approaches art as a social practice that seeks to establish dialogue in public spaces. Zúñiga received a B.A. in Practice of Arts and English Literature at University at California, Berkeley, and later an M.A. in Fine Arts a from Carnegie Mellon University. Born in San Francisco in the early Seventies in a family of immigrants from Nicaragua, Zúñiga’s practice explores such themes as immigration, discrimination, gentrification, globalization, and commodification. His works have been exhibited internationally, often behind the contexts of art galleries and museums.
