About TAO ART Peach Project
Peach Project is a contemporary art exhibition program officially launched by TAO ART in 2021. With a mission to grow emerging local artists in Taiwan, Peach Project provides a platform combining visual, performing, and interdisciplinary arts. It aims to nurture and nourish the creative practices produced by the seeds of the “Peach,” so they can create freely with unlimited possibilities, with the hopes of one day leading the development of local arts in Taiwan and taking it to new heights. As the main driver of the project, TAO ART expects to select promising emerging artists every year, submersing them to the development of this project, organizing an exhibition to publish their work, connecting them with contemporary social and cultural issues, and most importantly giving the audience a new and diverse facets of art.
http://www.taoartspace.com
INFO-LABOR.CO
22.Oct.
⎸
⎸
⎸
4.Dec.
2021
𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯
10.22 Friday 4 PM
INFO-LABOR.CO is an immersive exhibition jointly written and planned by Hsieh Yi-lun, Hsu Ling-hsuan, Tsai Chih-ning, Tuan Mu, and Wu Yan-lin, in aim to examine the labor mentality of the younger generation in East Asia facing the involution of the capitalist society.
The term “veg out,” which has gained popularity among young people in Taiwan, means “doing nothing” or “doing unproductive things.” Terms or phrases with similar contexts have also emerged to be popular among younger generations in different East Asian countries, such as the internet phrase “Auntie, I don’t want to work hard anymore,” ¹ which is quite popular in the Chinese-speaking circle in recent years, or the term “Tangping (lie down flat),” ² which has burst onto the scene in China in 2021. The emergence of these terms or phrases correspond to the helplessness and anxiety of the younger generation facing involution ³ of social structure. When own efforts do not generate proportional returns, and social classes gradually grow rigid, these words convert into real actions and attitudes towards life from just jokes that poke fun at oneself in the first place. Ultimately, tangping becomes a passive non-cooperation movement in today’s social structure of capitalism, just like the “low desire society” that is happening in Japan. ⁴ Through “no marriage, no child, no house” strategy of living, young people adopt a lifestyle of low production and consumption, so that the capitalist structure cannot squeeze from them labor force or consumption power.
INFO-LABOR.CO is a tech company founded in 2029, which strives to build a more comfortable labor environment and recruits those workers who long for “effortless labor.” INFO-LABOR.CO claims that, when you become an employee, you do not need to leave your house; all you need to do is lie down in bed every day, and you can work using your brain. The brain labor process will not affect your thinking or cognitive activities, and you can still lie in bed to play video games, binge-watch shows, or sleep. The only change is that, in the labor process, you cannot stand up as part of your brain function will be switched to information computing mode, and you can only move around by rolling or crawling; therefore, your range of movement will be limited to within your room. Once introduced, this project was immediately welcomed by young people who just graduated school. To them, the real attractive thing is not making a living by just lying down; rather, it is the ability of entering the social structure of capitalism by “vegging out,” turning useless into “useful” and unproductive into “productive.” The exhibition presents a fictional labor mechanism that combines technology and capital—that is, a scenario where “vegging out = working.” This seemingly harmless mechanism is really a metaphor of the collusive structure of technology and capital, using a precise design to block all possible ways of escaping the capitalist society. The group of people incorporated by this mechanism are the young labors suffering the impacts of involution. In other words, INFO-LABOR.CO adopts the strategy of “vegging out = working” to incorporate the group of people who are non-cooperative to the capitalist society. When “vegging out = working” becomes reality, the society seems to have a more comfortable labor mechanism; however, the ironic thing is that, even when they lie down flat at home and do meaningless things, they are still continually working for the capitalist society. On the other hand, the labor scenario of technology’s intervention into human body presented by INFO-LABOR.CO seems to still be in a distant future, but in as early as 2020, Microsoft had already proposed the hypothesis of using body activity data as a virtual currency system. ⁵ In the future, technology will definitely exist between men and society, in an all-inclusive state. By then, daily activities that can only be done through technology, such as shopping, socializing, and working, will make it even harder for an individual to run away from the framework of capitalist society.
Just as today in 2021, we cannot live without technology; isn’t the lifestyle designed through technology really implying that the choices an individual seems to have made based on personal will are really the capitalist cage tailored for each and every person by tech companies? If so, how should we respond? When 2029 arrives, will we still have the possible option of “vegging out”?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
1. “Auntie, I don’t wanna work hard anymore” is a popular internet phrase and meme in the Chinese-speaking circle. It refers to rich older lady taking care of a younger man, so he “does not need to work hard for living” (Similar phrases include “Saving 30 years of hard work.”).
2. Tangping is a popular internet buzzword that emerged in China in 2021. It refers to the mindset of younger people born in the 1990s and 2000s. Facing economic slowdown, lack of social mobility resulted from rigid social class structure, and intensified social issues, they have become disappointed and decided that “rather than persisting on to meet the expectations of the society, I might as well choose to ‘lie down flat,” and desire nothing.” This is regarded as a way of resisting social “involution.”
3. Involution is a social concept referring to social culture’s repetitive laboring and stagnated development. On the Internet, involution is used to refer to malicious internal competition. For example, a company originally implemented the 8-hour day system, but some people worked overtime willingly and earned the recognition of the management. Consequently, those who originally worked normal hours begin to worry that they are in a disadvantageous position, and also start to work overtime willingly. Over time, working overtime becomes the norm, and eventually, if a person is not willing to work overtime, it would affect his or her survival in the workplace, losing bargaining chips. Anthropologist Xiang Biao describes the online term involution as “endless loop like a top where one constantly whips oneself” and “a competition that does not allow failure or logout.”
4. “Low desire society” is a term proposed by Japanese management guru Ohmae Kenichi. He believes that, as Japan has experienced the lost 20 years after deflation, many young people do not want to get married and have children, do not want to get mortgages or car loans, do not want to get promoted or become successful, and have no strong material desires.
5. The concept originates from “US20200097951 – CRYPTOCURRENTCY SYSTEM USING BODY ACTIVITY DATA”
PRESS |
ART PRESS- 疫情後藝博迎來復甦了？關心市場，也須關注藝術界：這7個台北藝博同期展覽，象徵更多可能性的未來
500輯- TAO ART最新藝術計畫，《INFO-LABOR.CO》登場：五位千禧創作者，演繹當代資本社會議題
Shopping Design- 不想努力了！TAO ART 推全新藝術計畫，余政達擔任策展顧問、5位新世代藝術家以「勞力不費力」探討勞工議題
Tatler- TAO ART 攜手 5 位新銳藝術家共創 Peach Project ，反思千禧框架號召「勞力不費力」
© Tuan Mu. All Rights Reserved.
Tuan Mu 