USEFUL WORK V USELESS TOIL

“…worthy work carries with it the hope of pleasure in rest, the hope of pleasure in what it makes, the hope of pleasure in our daily creative skill. All other work but this is worthless. It is slave’s work – mere toiling to live so that we may live to toil.” William Morris. 1885.

How do Morris’ writing on economy, society and the meaning of work resonate today? On the site of HSCB’s collective money printing action we hear from the man himself prompting a conversation around the realities of useful work versus useless toil today. We look for ways out of wasted time and lives of debt servitude be it through refusal, co-operation or universal basic income seeking out purpose, meaning, participation and communityin the idea of work.

Featuring:

William Morris -reading excerpts from Useful Work v Useless Toil.

THE ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS run by artists Ruth Beale and Amy Feneck is an artistic project using the practice of self education to study economics, creating a framework for investigating social and cultural issues. The Alternative School of Economics is a statement – that people who are not economists, can set up an alternative school to reclaim economics as a social, everyday tool .

SOPHIE HOPE is a lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London in the Film, Media and Cultural Studies Department on the MA in Arts Management. Her work is often developed with others through the format of devised workshops exploring subjects such as theories, histories and practicalities of cultural democracy, art and politics in the year 1984, physical and emotional experiences of immaterial work, stories people tell about socially engaged art commissions and the ethics of employability in the creative industries. Recent projects nclude: 1984dinners.net, manuallabours.co.ukwith Jenny Richards, socialartmap.org.uk and criticalworkplacements.org.uk.

MARK HOOPER INDYCUBE