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For the past five years, Beth has investigated the gig economy through a combination of immersion and primary research. This research took place in London, a city where 31 thousand people work in the gig economy. Using the 18th-century Mechanical Turk as a departure point, the resulting trilogy of films set out to re-humanise the people behind the scenes.
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Bum Shower: Adventures from the Gig Economy is the first in the series, and is drawn from Beth's personal experience working for the domestic cleaning company Housekeep. The film sets out to expose the algorithmic control exerted over a domestic cleaner by the company she works for. As the protagonist navigates a series of anonymous households, her increasing curiosity about the homeowners contrasts with the disembodied, yet intimate, interactions she performs.
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The second film in the series, 12 Lemons: Further Adventures from the Gig Economy, was commissioned by the Irish online arts magazine Mirror Lamp Press. It focuses on a Deliveroo rider contending with the after effects of her teenage eating disorder. This is a fictionalised account interweaving Beth's personal experience of ED recovery with interviews conducted with food couriers classed as “essential workers” during the pandemic.
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The final film in the trilogy, Bone Spurs: Final Adventures from the Gig Economy, examines shifting sociocultural values through the eyes of a dog walker in her late 30’s. As she walks a rotating cast of furry clients, she grapples with her own ambiguity about starting a family. Her internal dialogue reflects on the traditional milestones of adulthood, contrasting with societal expectations of women and prescribed narratives of success, care, and fulfilment.
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The AFTGE series has a distinctive and deliberately lo-fi aesthetic that incorporates bright colours and a collage of shaky POV footage together with cut-out still images, animation and green screen effects. The series is informed by Beth's interest in the traditions of oral storytelling, and she uses her own voice to narrate the films with a tone that is consistently deadpan, teetering between absurdity and vulnerability. Beth appears as every character, often interacting with 2-dimensional handmade props representing consumer products. 80’s music, disembodied hands and dance routines are recurring motifs in the work.
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Films from the The Adventures from the Gig Economy series have been screened at the Whitechapel Gallery UK, The Complex IE, AIR Gallery UK, Hastings Gallery & Museum UK, Platform Arts IE, Visual Artist Ireland IE, Michigan State University Museum US, the London Short Film Festival UK, The Courthouse Gallery IE, the Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival UK, and the Science Gallery Bangalore IN. The films are included in the Irish Artist’s Film Index.
ADVENTURES FROM THE GIG ECONOMY​
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"Beneath the shiny surface of our phones and tablets, behind the frictionless apps that allow us to order all kinds of products and services at any hour of the day or night, someone, somewhere, is doing the work.”