(Single channel HD digital video, colour, sound/voiceover, 11’04″) (Landscaped Park of a Global Investment Bank), Zuidas Financial District, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2015

‘Curran filmed in the new financial district of Zuidas, on the periphery of Amsterdam, a global centre for algorithmic trading. Adapted from a text by former trader and financial activist, Brett Scott, examining High Frequency Trading (HFT) and how the input of human values, are excluded, the voiceover and title of the film, Algorithmic Surrealism, are inspired by Scott’s essay. The film suggests the hegemony of HFT, accounting now for most trading, and extinction of human reason—including traits such as empathy and ethics—in market decisions will only perpetuate the power relations of minority wealth in globalised capitalist systems’ (Helen Carey).

Elaborating on the project, THE MARKET, addressing the functioning and condition of the global markets and the role of financial capital, Curran undertook extensive research in Zuidas, the new Global Financial District on the periphery of Amsterdam, the Netherlands during the summer of 2015. The location for the film is a landscaped park in front of one of the largest Dutch-based global investment banks.

Film Editor: Lidia Rossner
Voice: Claudia Schäfer
Film script adapted by Mark Curran from original essay by Brett Scott
Commissioned by NEPN (University of Sunderland, UK) & Noorderlicht (the Netherlands). 
For Allan Sekula (1951-2013)