How did the overall market address the theme? >>
To answer the question, the theme must be understood. Immaterial labour comes to be theorised as a result of the changes in the mode of capitalist production, which Lazzarato (1997) defined this in two different aspects of labour:
firstly, it’s the 'informational content' of the commodity referring directly to the changes taking place in workers' labour processes in big companies in the industrial and tertiary sectors, where the skills involved in direct labour are increasingly skills involving cybernetics and computer control;
and secondly, it is regarded as the activity that produces the 'cultural content' of the commodity, involving a series of activities that are not usually recognised as 'work' meaning, the kinds of activities involved in defining and fixing cultural and artistic standards, fashions, tastes, consumer norms, and public opinion.
The idea of immaterial labour from the market did follow the theme where the activities involved artistic standard (the tv room) and opinion (the fingerprint booth). Although, lacking informational content and experiential think experience. Furthermore, prior the research regarding immaterial labour, we walked away from the market not knowing what an immaterial labour was, in a sense that the theme was not well addressed.
What was the overall atmosphere?
The MOIL produced four out of five types of experiential module from Schimitt (1999) including sense, feel, act, and relate; wherein the activities involved
sensory experience: watching that weird static television,
affective experience: the sad room,
physical experience: making origami,
and social identity experience: drawing your partners face.
It lacked one of the experiential modules which is ‘think’ since cognitive experience was absent. The market could have been better if they put facts that relates to their market making the participants to think. Furthermore, the market did give an experience including involvement, interaction and individual which are attributes to enhance the market experience (Wood, 2009).
Overall, the presentation of the market did a great job, contributing a lot in the concrete sensory experience (Buchenau and Suri, 2000).
What was the system of Exchange? Is the system of exchange a good fit for the theme?
The system of exchange was unknown in a way that they just let us in the market without negotiation/barter, time-based-, digital-, or monetary currency. If ever it was the app or time banking which is a community currency (Ozanne, 2010), then it was not implemented properly for the reason that we didn’t download the app or offer them anything in return, unless it was a free market.
It was later (after the market experience) explained by the way-finders that the currency was in fact an emotional exchange which does fit the theme because it is immaterial. Although, it still does not mean that the system of exchange was executed spectacularly since some of the stalls did not exchange anything (they just explained what we were doing and that was it), plus if they didn’t explain the currency was, then we still don’t know what it was.
Is there a variety of offerings? How do they address the theme?
The market did offer different variety of the theme such as:
1 The yellow room addressed the theme in a way that they invited participants to dance, play, and draw, wherein, it is an activity that that is not considered work and defines consumer norms.
2 The sad room addressed the theme without any kind of work in a way that they provided emotional and artistic standard (sadness), however it lacks experiential marketing since involvement was not carried out.
3 The fingerprint booth on the other hand, addressed the theme through consultation (opinion) about your fingerprint including their involvement since they at least communicated with the participants.
Collect your findings on the day and then get together as a team / group to discuss and distill your findings down to 200 words overall for the critic section of your Report. This report forms part of your submission and assessment.
The market did follow the theme in a way that they performed activities that are not usually recognised as 'work' meaning, the kinds of activities involved in defining and fixing cultural and artistic standards, fashions, tastes, consumer norms, and public opinion, which is a definition of Immaterial labour by Lazzarato (1997). However, prior the research, we walked away from the market still not knowing what an immaterial labour was, in that sense we believe the theme was not addressed properly.
The presentation of the market did a great job, contributing a lot in the concrete sensory experience (Buchenau and Suri, 2000) and also offered an experience that includes involvement, interaction and individual which are attributes to enhance the market experience (Wood, 2009).
Our understanding of the currency was that it was an emotional exchange, appropriate for the theme because it is immaterial. Although, it was hard to determine what the currency was which was later understood after being explained by the way-finders.
We found the sadness and joy stalls particularly effective in terms of executing the theme and currency of emotions. The sadness stall used several approaches to evoke sadness from market goers, externally and internally with cutting onions and reading sad stories which we found to be effective. The joy stall created an immersive experience which brought out laughter from the participants. The decorations of the overall market were cohesive and effective.
Overall, the market has its moment in a way that the “feel” or atmosphere of the market was very experiential, and some downfalls such as the market theme and currency was obscure as explained above.