Limp Tool

Workforce Science

Strategies to enhance the “productivity” of workers have been formalised since at least Frederick Winslow Taylor’s early-20th-century dream of “scientific management” through methods such as “time studies”. The latest wheeze is the Big Data field of “workforce science”, in which everything—patterns of emails, the length of telephone calls—may be measured and consigned to a comparative database to create a perfect management panopticon.

Read the full article HERE.

Eating Cubicles

The Cubicle Totem reminds us of the interrelatedness of the acquisition of food, work and some sort of irrational belief system that lies at its fundament. The totem is meant to unsettle our knowledge related to work and the workplace in relation to food. The Eating Cubicles in return are there to unsettle the unsettler. Is the cubicle a tool to ultimately provide our food or is it a monster that eats us?

Four O’ Clock MSG

Batchelor’s Cup-a-Soup Extra Minestrone with Pasta lists the following ingredients as served: flavouring (contains milk, barley), glucose syrup, flavour enhancers (monosodium glutamate, disodium-ribonucleotides, parsley, yeast extract, hydrogenated vegetable oil), potato starch, sugar, salt, pasta, carrot, onion, peas, leek, maize starch.

Smartdrugged Students

Methylphenidate is regularly used by students to enhance their mental abilities, improving their concentration and helping them to study. Professor John Harris, an expert in bioethics, has said that it would be unethical to stop healthy people taking the drug. He also argues that it would be “not rational” and against human enhancement to not use the drug to improve people’s cognitive abilities. Professor Anjan Chatterjee however has warned that there is a high potential for abuse and may cause serious adverse effects on the heart, meaning that only people with an illness should take the drug. In the British Medical Journal he wrote that it was premature to endorse the use of methylphenidate in this way as the effects of the drug on healthy people have not been studied.

Work to Eat

Hunter Keyboard

The computer has replaced most other hunter/gatherer tools. To reflect on the relationship between workspace and foodspace and the origins of work the Academy of Work designed a new keyboard lay-out.

Hammer Spoon

E 621 (Monosodium Glutamate)

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a food additive, also known as umami, that enhances taste. It is used in most processed foods. Much in the same way the office environment has replaced natural light by tubelights, natural air by air conditioning, and natural vegetation by potted plants, the food we consume in the office environment has been replaced by processed food supplements containing monosodium glutamate. MSG is mildly addictive and stimulates our neurotransmitters. Unfortunately it is an excitotoxin, meaning it overexcites and damages our nerves.

Repetitive Office Space Non-Poetry.