Exhibition/event has ended.
Camp Mondays “Thinking Over-Time”
Desk / Okumura
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Artists
Brigitta Isabella, Jong Pairez, Yoshitaka Mori
The invention of mechanical clock was one of the major advances in our civilization which at once a sign of new found creativity and a catalyst in the use of knowledge for wealth and power. Capitalism was in part built on increasing output by increasing labor time. The right to work as an expression of individual freedom, propagated by Industrial Revolution, had produced workers’ overproduction and created a small circle of unbusy rich. What made workers give up their leisure time? With more pressure on wages and job opportunities and the increased access to consumer (and leisure) goods, capitalism has increased the pressure to work more hours. Busyness was a doctrine of modern capitalism. Busyness has also systematically erased our political subjectivities and made life become only a matter of economical struggle, which prevents us from self-discovery of authentic needs such as intellectual and spiritual enjoyment.
In an advanced capitalist country such as Japan, hard work is overseen as a respectful culture but it seems there is a different between hard work and working for a long hour. General social pressure and job insecurity after the bubble economy has made a lot of Japanese people working overtime without pay. Japanese working environment has brought high amount of stress and increased the number of suicide cases.
In this discussion, Yoshitaka Mori will share his research on the recent development of “the Japanese freeter generation” which increased in early 1990 as a critical response to the collapse of bubble economy and refusal to work in an old Japanese working environment. He will elaborate the relation between working time and leisure time, critically asses the un/privileged position of artists in society, where many Japanese artists become workers and an integral part of labour forces, often as freeter.
The inability to posses leisure time also reduce the possibility of meaningful human interaction which whether direct or indirectly has changed the demography into an inverted pyramid with a rapidly aging society and a slowing birthrate. With the demographic change and the refusal of well educated Japanese youth to perform unskilled labor, Japan’s economy is also rising its demand for unskilled foreign labor (mainly from Southeast Asia and Latin America). Brigitta Isabella will share insights on the life of Indonesian migrant workers in Japan and compare it with the condition of work for migrant workers in Hong Kong. With the condition of global migration, the problem of labor in Japan is considered as a shared-transnational problem. Coming from background of a recent project by KUNCI Cultural Studies Center with Para Site gallery, Hong Kong, she will discuss foreign labor issues from cultural perspective, tweaking some ideas brought by Jacques Ranciere in The Proletarian Nights and posing ideas on the necessity of reclaiming leisure time for workers. Joining the discussion also Jong Pairez, a media artist based in Manila and Tokyo who consider himself as a foreign migrant worker. Jong will discuss his practice and the current development of #Atworkresearch, a project in which he explores the notion of immaterial labor and the inter-relation between work and play as a form of refusal of work.
In an advanced capitalist country such as Japan, hard work is overseen as a respectful culture but it seems there is a different between hard work and working for a long hour. General social pressure and job insecurity after the bubble economy has made a lot of Japanese people working overtime without pay. Japanese working environment has brought high amount of stress and increased the number of suicide cases.
In this discussion, Yoshitaka Mori will share his research on the recent development of “the Japanese freeter generation” which increased in early 1990 as a critical response to the collapse of bubble economy and refusal to work in an old Japanese working environment. He will elaborate the relation between working time and leisure time, critically asses the un/privileged position of artists in society, where many Japanese artists become workers and an integral part of labour forces, often as freeter.
The inability to posses leisure time also reduce the possibility of meaningful human interaction which whether direct or indirectly has changed the demography into an inverted pyramid with a rapidly aging society and a slowing birthrate. With the demographic change and the refusal of well educated Japanese youth to perform unskilled labor, Japan’s economy is also rising its demand for unskilled foreign labor (mainly from Southeast Asia and Latin America). Brigitta Isabella will share insights on the life of Indonesian migrant workers in Japan and compare it with the condition of work for migrant workers in Hong Kong. With the condition of global migration, the problem of labor in Japan is considered as a shared-transnational problem. Coming from background of a recent project by KUNCI Cultural Studies Center with Para Site gallery, Hong Kong, she will discuss foreign labor issues from cultural perspective, tweaking some ideas brought by Jacques Ranciere in The Proletarian Nights and posing ideas on the necessity of reclaiming leisure time for workers. Joining the discussion also Jong Pairez, a media artist based in Manila and Tokyo who consider himself as a foreign migrant worker. Jong will discuss his practice and the current development of #Atworkresearch, a project in which he explores the notion of immaterial labor and the inter-relation between work and play as a form of refusal of work.
Schedule | Nov 24 (Tue) 2015 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||
| Venue | Desk / Okumura | ||
| Location | 3-1-8 Higashi Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0004 | ||
| Access | 2 minute walk from exit A2 at Bakuro Yokoyama Station on the Toei Shinjuku line. 3 minute walk from exit B2 at Higashi Nihonbashi Station on the Toei Asakusa line. 4 minute walk from exit 1 at Bakurocho Station on the JR Sobu Main iine. | ||
| Phone | 090-9905-8377 | ||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it  |
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