[resource-net] DIGITAL PROZAC: Fri 23 Nov at SUPERMARKT

[Michelle O'Brien]

Dear reSource community,

We would like to invite you to SUPERMARKT next Friday evening for a 
special free event featuring a lecture by R. Trebor Scholz (The New 
School, NYC) and respondents Geraldine de Bastion & Joel Dullroy. Info 
on the event can be found below. We hope you can join us, and we would 
also be happy if you could spread word on DIGITAL PROZAC to your networks.

Best wishes,

Michelle

Creative Producer, SUPERMARKT
http://supermarkt-berlin.net

- -

DIGITAL PROZAC: LABOR AND THE BUSINESS OF LIFE // FRIDAY 23 NOV, 19:00—22:00

Have you ever thought of your social media life as labor? Consider that 
every Google search, tweet, or video upload we produce helps to raise 
the bottom line for online intermediaries. But not only oligarchic media 
corporations take advantage of this shift in labor markets; thousands of 
young, optimistic startups position free labor of netizens at the heart 
of their business model. At the same time, a growing number of people 
are starting to become aware of the price of their freely given gifts 
and stake their claim when private enterprises expropriate value from 
the public commons. "You can't share us!" is their leitmotif in the 
search for autonomous ways of thriving online without selling their soul.

19:00—19:45 // Digital Prozac: Labor and the Business of Life Lecture by 
R. Trebor Scholz
This talk Digital Prozac: Labor and the Business of Life is based on the 
recently published book Digital Labor: The Internet as Playground and 
Factory, edited by Scholz. Here, he argues that the distinction between 
work, play, and communication and leisure has faded and that these 
activities should be understood as labor.

What are some similarities 
between the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 and labor practices 
on emerging platforms like Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk or TxtEagle? 
Newly gained freedoms and visions of liberation through digital media 
have complex social costs that are often invisible. Internet users are 
becoming more vulnerable to novel enticements, conveniences, and 
marketing ploys. Online and off, they are increasingly wielded as a 
resource for economic amelioration. This talk explores the violence of 
participation and asks how economic value is generated in the actual 
rather than speculative economy of the Internet.
 A few questions that 
the presentation will address: What are some core affordances of the 
social web? How does the intertwining of labor, play, social utility, 
and pleasure complicate our understanding of exploitation? What are the 
flows and discontinuities between traditional and novel forms of labor: 
between domestic labor, or care giving, and interactivity on social 
networking services, for example? What are tangible alternatives?

19:45—21:00 // Conversation & Discussion
Two respondents with expertise in digital culture, Geraldine de Bastion 
and Joel Dullroy, will reflect on Scholz's lecture from their own 
vantage points. They will add their insights about online communities 
and the value of social participation. Their response will be followed 
by public discussion.


This is a free event. The language of presentation will be English. To 
attend please RSVP to info at supermarkt-berlin.net with the subject 
'Digital Prozac', or on Facebook at http://tiny.cc/7wkpnw