I can’t breath

I can't breathe, takes its inspiration from a statement made by the chief financial officer of Citi Bank in a post reacting to the tragic death of George Floyd in 2020; "When I see the face of George Floyd, I see myself as a young man; [...] and I am reminded of the many times in my life when I have been judged not by my character, but by my skin color." The project aims to create a conversation between the public and the bank's artificial 'intelligence' chatbots, using "I can't breathe" as a focal point. The sentence, pronounced by Floyd while being suffocated to death by police, serves as a dual symbol within the project: it represents both the literal plea of George Floyd in his last moments and a metaphor for the financial suffocation caused by oppressive banking practices. By linking these two realms, the project aims to illuminate the parallels between the fight for life and the metaphorical struggle many endure under financial constraints. Furthermore, the artwork seeks to juxtapose the event's intensity with the mundane interactions with banks' AI assistants, emphasizing, through a series of mis-interactions, the disparity between the intensity of financial challenges and the seamless routine nature of everyday interaction with digital banks 'intelligent' assistants.