What to do after work? is a public intervention in the framework of the exhibition In the meantime, midday comes around and an open invitation to participate, speculate, or simply to listen in.
Please register via vermittlung@kunsthallewien.at.
Free admission.
The What to do after work? event series takes place every two weeks, on Tuesday from 5 pm to 7 pm.
With Nataša Ilić (What, How & for Whom / WHW, curators of the exhibition In the meantime, midday comes around) and Thomas Reithmayer (political scientist and adult educator).
We read from texts that envision a future “after work” as it is now organized, and compare this with the results of the so-called “Marienthal Study” (1933), which, as a “sociographic experiment on the effects of prolonged unemployment,” also focused above all on the psychological consequences – which differ according to gender – of being forced to do nothing.
“Die unbegrenzte Zeit, die keine Struktur hat, wo nichts wirklich geschehen muss, die unbegrenzte Zeit ist nicht Freizeit. Sie ist eine ungeheure seelische Belastung, die den Menschen nur zeigt, dass sie nicht gebraucht werden, […] die Menschen dazu zwingt, sich als Ausgestoßene von der gesamten Gesellschaft zu fühlen; Wo arbeitslose Menschen keinen strukturierenden Alltag mehr haben, geben viele von ihnen auch die Hoffnung auf ein besseres Leben auf.” (Marie Jahoda)
“What will people do with their expanded free time? […] Reorganizing social life to reduce the role of necessary labour is not about overcoming work as such; it is about freeing people to pursue the sort of activities that cannot be described simply as either work or leisure.” (Aaron Benanav)
“A post-work world is not a world of idleness; rather, it is a world in which people are no longer bound to their jobs, but free to create their own lives.” (Nick Srnicek, Alex Williams)
“The left needs to resist the imposition of labour, work must be framed as a problem rather than a solution.” (Helen Hester, Nick Srnicek)
“We need to redefine the working classes as caring classes.” (David Graeber)
No preparation or prior reading is necessary!
The reading basics are available in English and German.