The Dikeou Collection is pleased to welcome Collective Misnomer as they present Modern Times, which examines the blight of contemporary worker culture. This screening will take place on Friday, October 13 at Dikeou Pop-Up: Colfax, 312 E Colfax Ave. Doors open at 7:30 pm. This event is open to the public.
Sebastian Schmieg’s film I Will Say Whatever You Want In Front Of A Pizza (2017) is a speculative Prezi that explores digital labor, the amalgamation of humans and software, and the possibility of interventions inside algorithmic systems. It is narrated from the perspective of a cloud worker. While technology is often described as an extension of our bodies, the Prezi (presentation software) video explores a reversed relationship: digital workers as software extensions. The ubiquitous network and the computerization of everything have not only blurred the lines between bots and people – supposedly autonomous programs are sometimes people that have to act as if they were software. This development has also made it very easy for everyone to hire, program, and retire humans as part of any workflow: bodies and minds that can be plugged in, rewired, and discarded as one sees fit. The Prezi can exist in multiple forms simultaneously – video, slideshow, lecture performance, etc. Furthermore, the piece is never finished and can constantly update in order to always meet the market’s demands.
Set during the industrial expansion of Korea in the 1970s and 80s, Nils Clauss’ Bikini Words(2016) looks at working and housing conditions which gave rise to new linguistic developments among the workers.
Andrew Norman Wilson investigates a top secret, marginalized class of workers at Google’s international corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley in his film, Workers Leaving the Googleplex (2011). Wilson’s video documents the yellow badge-wearing ScanOps Google Books workers, while simultaneously chronicling the complex events surrounding his own dismissal from the company. The reference to the Lumière Brother’s 1895 film Workers Leaving the Factory situates the video within motion picture history, suggesting transformations and continuities in arrangements of labour, capital, media, and information.
Sam Barnett’s film Operator: Episode 1 (2013) Barnett was, “inspired to make this film by a few things, cordyceps mushrooms which infect and control the minds of ants, causing them to climb up as high as possible so that when the mushroom finally bursts from the ants head the spores are spread as far as possible by the wind. Secondly, “parasitic ideas” – such as ideologies designed by cults or oppressive regimes explicitly to weaken and control the holders of such beliefs, and the callous mechanization of corporate bureaucracy. sprawling bureaucracies in super massive organizations can have so many moving parts and conflicting interests that no human maintains real control.”
In an experimental animated documentary, Kelly Gallagher’s More Dangerous Than a Thousand Rioters (2016) explores the powerful and inspiring life of revolutionary Lucy Parsons. This film illustrates her dedicated life to struggle, and her important, countless contributions fighting endlessly against capitalism, racism, and sexism.