Meshdia: Reworking the Realities of Labour

Activist artists and makers are frequently toolmakers, committed to sharing their know-how. Their most appropriate textual genre may not be the manifesto but the manual.

David Garcia

The contemporary economy is not concerned with our labour. We are increasingly recognized only by our products, whether as cultural workers, freelancers or platform workers. As a result, labour is slowly diluting away from societal discourse. How can we counteract this (forced) act of disappearance? How can we reconceive labour, starting from ourselves, finding new grounds for its existence? 

Meshdia – an emergent organisation from the auspices of SAVVY Contemporary's UNITED SCREENS – invites you to speculate on the future forms of labour, its value and our capabilities for creating them. As a bonus, you will receive invitations to playable labour-prototypes.

Meshdia researches, designs, and prototypes new circulations for cultural work(s). Its central inquiry: How to compose and enact new architectures of culture, rather than creating works within existing structures? Meshdia conceives media as networks and networks as media. 

ALESSANDRO Y LONGO is a writer and researcher based in Berlin. His work reflects critically on hegemonic techno-politics, cultural evolutions in the age of networks, radical imagination, and systems of change. His research is channelled through the collective body of REINCANTAMENTO, an independent group dedicated to exploring the intricate relationship between technology, magic, and society.

PEKKO KOSKINEN designs social realities as playable forms. Among his designs are fictional religions, hijacked political identities, potential economies, and self-designs. Sometimes these designs are called art (by other people), ending in institutions such as Athens and Mercosul Biennials and NY MoMA. Pekko has also been a member of YKON, co-directed the Reality Research Center, and co-founded SoSA (Social Space Agency) and ECSA (Economic Space Agency).