Changing Labor Value

Drawing from critical perspectives on labor, social media, political theory, this panel discussion addresses the nature of the work of Internet users and networked workers, focusing on the relationship between invisible labor, play, exploitation, pleasure, and the production of value. What constitutes work in the digital era? What are some alternatives to the seamless corporate expropriation of value from millions of net users? Is it possible to acknowledge the moments of ruthless exploitation while not eradicating optimism, inspiration, and the many instances of individual financial and political empowerment?

As annotations to the panel, several web-based projects by artists including Burak Arikan, Jeff Crouse, Ursula Endlicher, Scott Kildall, Aaron Koblin, Stephanie Rothenberg and Victoria Scott will be installed in the same lecture hall from 5:30 p.m. onwards through the evening.

This event is presented as a prelude to “The Internet as Playground and Factory,” a conference organized by Eugene Lang faculty member Trebor Scholz that will take place at Eugene Lang College (The New School), from November 12 to 14, 2009 (www.digitallabor.org). The conference will address the massive transformations in economy, labor, and life related to digital media and confront the urgent need to interrogate what constitutes labor and value in the digital economy.

Presented on occasion of the Vera List Center’s 2009/2010 program theme “Speculating on Change.”

Moderator
McKenzie Wark, Associate Professor, Chair of Media Studies and Associate Dean of Eugene Lang College

Panelists
Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University and author of the recently published collection of essays, Nice Work if You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times

Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology, New York University and author of The Craftsman

Tiziana Terranova, Associate Professor of Sociology of Communications, Università di Napoli “L’Orientale” and author of Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age

With artist projects by
Burak Arikan
Ursula Endlicher
Scott Kildall and Victoria Scott
Aaron Koblin
Stephanie Rothenberg and Jeff Crouse