Eastern Surf: ILOVEMYJOB!

We are living under conditions of permanent performance. There has been a total collapse of the borders between work/leisure/rest. On social media images of laptops, hot drinks, laundry are coupled with messages such as “do what you love!” “own your own time!” As the theorist Robin James writes “We have become our own adverts”, simultaneously promoting positive versions of ourselves and exerting influence on our peers. It seems that as the post-work automated future becomes more of a reality, the idea and image of doing work is fetishised. “ilovemyjob” is a common hashtag used on Instagram by users who post pictures of themselves at work, most commonly in their own homes, with a combination of working from home, domestic chores and childcare. ilovemyjob is a linguistic symbol of the total overlap of work, leisure and rest, domestic and office space, private and public life.

For our performance we recorded ourselves attempting to create visions of work in our own domestic space. This became a series of videos forming the busy schedule of one whole day. We invited participants to the performance who, via their email address, were then added to a shared calendar. Throughout the course of the 2nd February 2017 appointments were added with the title and link to the videos, and notifications were sent to the performance participants in order for them to view the videos in realtime. 7am Good morning world! Just wake up. 8am Working from home rocks! 9am Don’t dream of it, train for it! …

Ilovemyjob performance is concucted by Ana Kuzmanic, Francesca Nobilucci and Shona Macnaughton.