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Affective Labor

“Focus on the production of affects in our labor and our social practices has often served as a useful ground for anticapitalist projects, in the context of discourses, for instance, on desire or on use-value.”

-Michael Hardt

#exchange

Final Report

Review of Abandoned Materials (Participants):

Getting to the market from a floor above was the least enjoyable part of this market. We were told we couldn’t come down the central stairs and so went down the stairs at the Northern End of the building to level D, where the market was, but were told we couldn’t enter from that point either. Moved back to the North End stairs and went down to Level C to come up the centre stairs to level D. We were allowed in when we came this way. This was the only unenjoyable part of this market though as the overall market was extremely fun and interactive.

One of the main ideas of the market was that nothing would be left behind; but because we weren’t present to see the aftermath of their market it was hard to comment on how they disposed of their materials. Kevin Lynch has stated in his text Wasting Away (1990) that we should be ‘wary of disposal’ that will once again take us to the point of no return, where the world’s litter cannot be avoided. The market has addressed this by using old materials, and recycling their products into something new for us to use, or take away (p.159). Each stall was informative and fun; we were all very excited to get so many things in our recycled, plastic goodie bag. The people inviting us into the market were very enthusiastic, and directed you to a stall immediately. This meant that we were able to dive straight into the market, and then move around how we liked. The look of the market was very aesthetically pleasing as due to the market having a theme of recycling, everything had a similar look to it. The atmosphere was similar to that of a coffee shop, people were very relaxed and chatty and there was lots of cardboard, burlap, and paper. The entire market felt like it had been planned as a whole instead of as separate stalls.

MISSING YU :(

The entrance to our stall without the larger tree.

Calico was used to cover the tables and to make it look as if the towels were on sand.

Review of our market.

Our market went really well. We constantly had participants who openly expressed their positive opinions about our stall’s idea— writing their stress on a piece of paper in exchange of free lemonade which they can enjoy within our relaxing space. There were two guests who said writing stress was preferable over writing secrets. A couple of participants addressed how they found the stall relaxing and calming—as well as the whole market itself. The stall was never empty at any point but there was only a moment where a queue started building up but we explained that—for relaxing experience purposes—we let every participant take their time in the stall. There were groups who spent a long time in the stall, talked to their friends, looked at the sky, smelled the coconut oil and wore the glasses. And there were people who left once they had their lemonade and some took their time to read what different people are stressing about. We didn’t have to dictate anyone how to experience our stall but they captured the way we hoped they experience the Relaxing Beach. Overall, the whole market was chill, it never felt like we had a very big crowd but we constantly had different people participating.

People enjoying our relaxing beach at our Immaterial Labour market.

‘Smell me’ jars for the coconut oil. We tried putting coconut oil on the fans but it just made the fans greasy and didn’t really make the smell more potent. Breaking up the coconut oil and putting it into the jars for people to smell created a stronger scent.

The birds create a silhouette on the windows in our stall.

These signs were made to act as way-finding for people participating in our market place. They have a resemblance to the road signs seen around New Zealand so as to make that connection of direction for the crowd.

These were the signs made to put on the front of the stall.

“Relaxation Beach”

we bought leis for each of us to wear, along with our summery clothes, to create a constant aesthetic without looking too much like a uniform.

We wanted something less formal.

Trees cut out of cardboard on the laser cutter in three different sizes and then painted. The bigger trees had to have support attached to the back so that they stayed upright.

Critique of Impossible Things market:

In the Impossible Things market here was a good distinction between the Past, Present and Future which created a cool aesthetic for the whole market. Past connected most obviously with the Image as Text: Truth and Memory in Family History reading by Dr Elizabeth Suda; as it can be described fully with the quote “I returned to the formative childhood experiences, to try to add flesh and bones…”. If there was a weak point in the aesthetic it may have been within the ‘present’ area of the market. Although that section did have one of the more entertaining stalls/interactions with the ‘IMPOSSIBLE UNLUCKY WHEEL OF LUCK’ which had a obvious message of living in the moment and taking advantage of the present. In regards to health and safety, this group would need to be careful about cleaning up the after themselves; the raw egg and the flour on the floor were quite slippery.

The layout of the market was interesting and created a definitive flow of movement for the participants. Although this forced direction also meant there were hold ups when too many people were trying to get through at one moment in time. Quite a few people got backlogged in the ‘present’ due to a lot of the stalls needing a certain amount of time to with only a limited number of people.

Overall though, the market was cohesive within its theme, and entertaining in all its aspects. The stalls were imaginative, hugely varied, and linked strongly to the area’s theme -past, present, or future. The stalls were approachable, fun, and tempting to go back to for a second look.

Basic timetable for our goals over the next two week before our market on Wednesday in week 10.

This is the layout of our entire market for Immaterial Labours, we have secured our space along an entire window.

In looking over the Safety requirements form we found that we had to prepare in case there was spillage of drinks on the day. We will bring paper towels to mop up spills on the day.

Also we have to make sure our stall has enough walking space so that people don’t trip. This will involve, on the day, making sure that people don’t push their chairs and bean bags back too far. If they do we will have to make sure everything gets put back before another lot of people come through.

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