Dan Mitchell, Hard Mag, Issue 6, 2012

Last month’s hot-ticket art history conference in London was, like a number of Modernist artworks, officially ‘Untitled’. An accompanying parenthetical helpfully aided the viewer’s interpretation of the events which subsequently took place; in this case the subject matter squeamishly embraced by the robust roster of panelists was ‘Labour’ [sic]. Organized by Lauren Rotenberg and TJ Demos of University College London and Tate’s Nora Razian, by 6.30 pm on Saturday March 17 the half-day symposium had smartly demonstrated the rigidity of the academic/institutional complex in practically addressing ‘new forms of labor in the emerging global economy’ by formally reifying post-Fordist conditions of (knowledge) production; ie. gathering a number of specialist intellectual laborers into a tight assembly line and compelling them to turn cartwheels outside of office hours. This was not achieved without some entertainment; and had it been a performance choreographed by someone like Liam Gillick, one could even call it an artistic masterpiece.
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