“Social participation is the oil of the digital economy.” – Trebor Scholz[1] “The consumer is sovereign in a jungle of ugliness, where the freedom of choice is imposed on him.” – Jean Baudrillard[2] Histories of Play and Labor In his short essay “Money for Nothing: Virtual Worlds and Virtual Economies,” Steven Shaviro traces what he sees as the historical trajectory … [Read more...] about Casual Labor
Archives for November 2011
Gambling With Luck
“What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?” - Anton Chigurh, No Country for Old Men In our daily lives, the most we bet on a coin toss is a couple of dollars or an embarrassing public act. We think it is a fair way to make an arbitrary decision: the coin has an equal probability of landing on heads or tails so we leave it up to chance to decide. Consequently, we associate … [Read more...] about Gambling With Luck
The Empty Chair: Looking into the Eyes of Marina Abramovic
Performance artist Marina Abramovic’s retrospective collection, “The Artist is Present,” debuted in March 2010 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Comprised of over fifty pieces of her work from the last forty years, the exhibition calls attention to the divide between artist and audience, observer and participant, and repetition and stillness. Using the human body as a medium, … [Read more...] about The Empty Chair: Looking into the Eyes of Marina Abramovic