Description
Die Zeichen stehen gut
The Signs are good
Post-industrial society has lost its grip on notions of work, rest and
leisure.The rise of immaterial labour has been met with a growing
optimisation of the individual, a continuous variable with multiple
presences and temporalities-The prevalence tide of mixed, privateprofessional
engagement forces us to be always, all ways, switched
on. What does this mean for our intimate lives, our privacy and our
integrity? Our needs and desires are changing, as are our values. Well,
the signs, the prospects, the indications are good. Good for what, for
whom? Ask the objects that surround us, that serve us and distract
us on a daily basis. Objects that perform so that we can too. They
help us tend toour delicate, docile bodies so we can stay in the race,
multi-tasking and mobile. Carefully compartmentalised, even our tears
are ergonomic these days. Kinesio tape on the shoulder replaces
a warm hand, a touch helping us keep it together. As technologies
of self-regulation and -exploitation are condensed and dispersed
through our mental, emotion and physical lives, we’d better stay on
the good side of these gadgets and tools.
Miriam Stoney
