9 to 5, January 15th
5 minutes late. This actually feels like going to work
For what is called "The Experiment" in the first year of the MA I'm doing here in Swansea, we were all presented with a task. This was mine:
Allan Kaprow: Chores
"Sweeping the dust from the floor of a room/ Spreading the dust in another room, so it won't be noticed/ Continuing daily ..."
9 to 5 is my response to this task. It reminded me of the job I had at the Austrian National Library: Cleaning books in the music collection. I started thinking about libraries and dust for a while, before I then realised that something else interested me about the task I was given. It proposed an activity that you are doing everyday, for yourself, for no apparent reason other than it being art. It seemed to me to formulate an antithesis to what a 9-to-5-job would usually be considered to be: a daily activity that you are doing for somebody else, and only for one reason: to get a paycheck at the end of the month. Alienation. Your work is not your life.
Kaprow, on the other hand: the blurring of art and life. I was going to get "Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life" out of the library today, but they have no copy of it. So I am going to judge a book by its cover (or rather its title) here (which is okay, I only have limited time, I'm under constant pressure to perform/make performance art). It's again the question I ask in the announcement for this project: Has the desire for a creative, unalienated activity and way of life formulated by artists since the 60s not been fulfilled, channeled into the realities of work in the creative industries (should I say culture industry?), and beyond that? Do not skills like creativity, Eigeninitiative (what's that in English?), idealism, visual competence, the ability of self-promotion, communication skills etc. that would be expected from artists today look good on most job applications? Identify with your work, your company, your product. Be a company. Be your work. Be your product. Don't let yourself be exploited, exploit yourself.
Costume 1: National Library
At the National Library, I cleaned books and music sheets (Mozart, mostly) using a vacuum cleaner. I was wearing a mask and latex gloves against the dust. I brought my own apron. When I told a friend about my job at the library, she told me to give my vacuum cleaner a name. I did not want to. I did not want to be personally involved with my work. I enjoyed going home not thinking about it. Yet I had written in my application how much I love books.
If you're paid by the hour take your time
For example: You're asked how long it will take you to finish a certain task. You think it will take three hours. Tell them you need five hours to finish it, be finished after four hours: you win one hour while still appearing to be a fast worker.
Dust
Score for a happening
Go to the music collection of your local library. Collect the dust from a book of or about a dead composer. Take the dust to a silent room. Spread it on the floor. Wait for the ghost/the music to appear.
Dust II
Score for a happening
At the library, find a book covered with dust. Take it out. Bring it back clean the next day.
Work
Score for a happening
Sit at your desk. Wait until it is covered with dust. Go back to work.
Work II
Score for a happening
Sit at your desk. Wait for the phone to ring. Wait for the phone to stop ringing.
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