[ISEA2016] Artist Talk: Jason Huff — Work-life.tips

Artist Statement

What is work? What is leisure? Where is the border between the two activities and who decides when each begins and ends? I’ve been meditating on the eroded boundaries. I’ll use my piece “work-life.tips” as a jumping off point in exploring the blurry politics of working anywhere at any time, always, forever. I’ll use open questions to explore the tension between witnessing a relaxing scene while being reminded about the overbearing reality of “work anywhere, anytime, in the most optimized way” emanating from the neo-capitalist gig economy.
You’ll be encouraged to relax and open your mind and consider how many ways you can optimize your life. Be the capital you’ve always imagined. You’re on an island. Watch the waves roll in, imagine the sand in your feet, and reflect. Snippets appear instructing you to optimize, capitalize, and reimagine yourself. You are your job. Leisure time is work time. Anxiety is productivity.

video: work-life.tips

  • Jason Huff (b. 1981) is a Brooklyn (USA) based artist. His works explore our relationship to technology through language, everyday objects, and the Web. His projects are included in the Library of the Printed Web and in the Special Collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2012 Traumawien Press published a limited edition of his collaborative text-based work, American Psycho. Huff’s work has been shown nationally and internationally in museums and galleries and he’s presented his work and performed readings in London, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, and New York. Huff holds an MFA in Digital Media from the Rhode Island School of Design.