We all come from different backgrounds, and many of us likely work for wages in different industries (art, technology, design, education). All of us perform varying degrees of labor outside the marketplace (e.g. care work). Some of us may have a deep understanding of our labor, while others may not think of ourselves as workers at all. This course is a collective consciousness-raising exercise for us to better understand our relationship to power and capital and our identities as workers, and how those identities shape and are shaped by technology. In doing so, we will build a sense of community and shared struggle, and a better understanding of our collective power to bring about change.
Day 1 will start with an introductory lecture by ann haeyoung (workshop leader) who will give an overview about her art.
Afterwards, we will separate into small groups to do a modified worker's inquiry. A worker's inquiry in a method of grassroots research where we form an understanding about work, technology, and capitalism by drawing on our own experiences as wokers+users.
The readings for this day are general background and are not required.
Agenda 20 min: Introduction to teacher + activity
10 min: Split into groups
75 min: Worker's Inquiry
15 min: Report back + wrap up
- ‘Robots’ Are Not 'Coming for Your Job'—Management Is
- The Workers’ Inquiry and Social Composition (optional)
- General information on the history of the Worker’s Inquiry (optional)
On Day 2 we will discuss the relationship bewteen capital and technology, and collectively create a battery.
With a mixture of lectures and hands on exercises, we'll learn about how batteries function and build our own battery. Finally, we will combine multiple cells of a battery to power an LED (or several LEDs!).
Agenda 45 min: Lecture + demos on power and batteries
5 min: Break
30 min: Hands on activity - making batteries
30 min: Wrap up/clean up
Background reading
Required
Additional resources