travellab.love

::: solidarity and temporality

> the idea of immaterial labour

shifts the notions of work, communication and subjectivity away from dominant 20th century structures. The western dualism between work and production does not seem to be appropriate in contemporary society, so maybe the terms "in between" need to be opened up, shifting capitalist structures to more flexible and creative notions of work and production, visible in artistic practices today.

According to Hans Ulrich Reck, artistic practice works concretely in a cartography, operating within "Zwischenmaschinen" - inter-machines. Through these interventions, social and political issues may be brought to light, connecting the "Lebenswelt" (the whole social living world) with work and production. This kind of immaterial labour does not, however, have to be limited to artistic practice. Solidarity and temporality form key concepts in this kind of labour as opposed to co-operation which cannot automatically be found in the technological media of today. There is no collective intelligence on the net, according to Reck. The idea that French ideals of revolution have now been realised on the net is an illusion. This virtual working collective is an idealistic fiction, based on a western idea of historic progress (Walter Benjamin). So this notion of collective should be replaced by singular intervention, creating solidarity and temporality. This solidarity is not based on calculation, but on an ethos. Reck's notion of the ethos is not derived from implications and effects, it is an almost undefinable awareness of time, an existential question concerned with the economy of time which is evident in artistic practice.

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