Part-time

Prime

Part-time

Page 2 and 3 Letter of interest and accompanying text Page 4 Preface Page 5 Kymberley Ward, 'The Artist-as-Entrepreneur : Unmasked? ' Page 9 Ellie Harrison (Prime employee) Page 12 Stephen Edgell, 'Non standard work in contemporary Britain'.

Page 18 Elizabeth Kearney (Prime employee) Page 21 Joanna Spitzner (Prime employee) Page 25 Union of Undercover Artists Page 27 Steven Renshaw, 'The Foreman, the Clock and the Machine ' Page 32 Acknowledgments

Prime

STRICTLY PERSONAL- FOR ADD RESSEE ONLY

5 August 2005

Dear. .

Enclosed is a text to inform you of a project that is under development conce rnin g artists and employment, as you have been recognised as a potential collaborator.

To express your interest please send a letter outlining your suitability and CV in the enclosed pre. paid envelope by 10 September in order to be considered for the project.

If you have any questions please e-mail me at info@primeemployment.co.uk Kind regards

Mark Smith Recruitment Consultant - Liverpool Contacts

1595 (06104)

Prime 'New vacancies tend to be fixed term, until further notice and parttime. They are often combined with other occupations and depn¡ved of any safegua1ds of continuity, let alone of permanence. Tile catchword is flexibility, and this increasingly fashionable notion stands for a game of hire and fire with very few rules attaciJed, but wit/1 power to ciJange the rules unilaterally while the game is still being played' Zygmunt Bauman, 'Work, consumerism and the new poor.'

Within our contemporary society employment can be another way in which duty as consumer is fLIIfilled . Through their aesthetic criteria, jobs play many varying roles in shaping our identities.

The experience-seeking nature of culture Is reinforced through employment by the increased structuring of jobs to coincide with the demands of the economy upon capitalist industry. Shortterm and temporary contracts along with the threat of outsourcing give rise to impermanent and insecure employment for workers whose flexibility is a prerequisite. Leading to fewer rights, less benefits and diminishing employer responsibility and resulting in a cheaper, more expendable, ultimately loyalty free workforce. lt is commonplace for artists to work on a freelance basis. Although without the same market constraints that are placed upon commercial business, the cultural sector is a highly competitive arena with fewer job opportunities than there are artists and limited amounts of public funding available. Therefore in order to support themselves wh1le continuing to make art some artists take jobs within other industries - sometimes those with fast turnovers, few prospects and minimal wages. The effect of dealing with their economic realities has resulted in some artists becoming concerned with shrinking the gap between work-life and art-life. As Ute Meta Bauer states in her text 'Education, Information, Entertainment', 'More and mo1e activities devoted to "eaming a living" are becoming inco1porated into current fo1ms of art practice, as artists grow weary of neglecting their everyday realities .... ' PRIME is any number of placements into work situations in order to examine the notion of parttime work and its relationship to the contemporary artist. Initially, PRIME will collaborate with a number of artist associates towards gaining them paid employment. This employment must be part-time and ongoing - each placement la sting for a minimum of one month and continuing until the associate decides to terminate. At no time during the placement must the employer be made aware of PRIME. In return, each associate will receive a commissioning fee alongside the wage paid by the placement company . The fee is to cover work done outside of placement hours towards developing an outcome. The outcome will take the form that the associate sees fit and is subject to negotiation with PRIME. A publication documenting the project will contain a series of commissioned texts that critically investigate the issues raised. The texts will be initiated in consideration of t11e following themes: Mirroring Reality.

Misusing Work and Wasting Time.

Employee in Residence.

Roles and Identities.

Me Inc. and McJobs.

Preface

Prime is an organisation set up to explore the relationship that individuals have to the jobs that they do. 'Part-time' is Primes' first project and involved commissioning 3 artists to ga in paid employment within industries that they identified in order to investigate the notion of part-time work and its relationship to the contemporary artist.

Each placement had to last for a minimum of one month and at no time during the placement was the employer to be made aware of the project.

Mimicking the working day of many artists, the time outside of employment hours was used to make art- in this instance in response to the job. Alongside the wage paid by their employer, each artist received a commissioning fee for an outcome that was subject to negotiation with Prime. By initiating alternatives to the 'artist residency' the aim of 'Part-time' was to draw attention to how dealing with economic realities has resulted in some artists shrinking the gap between art and work.

This publication holds excerpts from that process, and contains three commissioned essays that investigate the issues ra ised.

Steven Renshaw, Director, Prime Contributors Stephen Edgell is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Salford and the author of several books, most recently 'The Sociology of Work: Continuity and Change in Paid and Unpaid Work', London: Sage, 2005; 'Veblen in Perspective: His Life and Thought', New York: M.E.Sharpe, 2001.

Ellie Harrison graduated with first class honours from BA Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University in 2001. She went on to study for a postgraduate diploma in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, graduating in 2003. Ellie Harrison lives in Nottingham and is parttime lecturer in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University. www.ellieharrison.com Elizabeth Kearney is an artist based in Liverpool.

Steven Renshaw is an artist. After 18 months working part-time for Barclays he has been working in Liverpool as director of Prime, an art technician and a part-time lecturer.

Joanna Spitzner is an artist and assistant professor in Time Arts at Syracuse University, NY. Recent projects include the Joanna Spitzner Foundation, an organization that gives grants to artists that are funded by wage jobs that she works. www.jsfoundation.org Kymberley Ward graduated from Chelsea School of Art in June 2006. She has subsequently divided her time between writing, building stud walls, pouring pints and attempting to find enough time to continue her art practice. Her interest in the reality of modern labour runs from the everyday to the infinite, often via slapstick and the absurd.

She lives and works in London.

4

The Artist-as-Entrepreneur : Unmasked Kymberley Ward

Tonight, I will stay up all night. A sense of urgency and the impending deadline keeps me going. If I were to work out the hourly rate for this project, I would be horrified - I am being paid a one-off fee for my production; and yet the hours slip by uncounted.

Having worked all day, I would never countenance a night shift did I not feel a sense of personal responsibility to the task. In this way, I am the perfect worker.

Although artistic production and labour are not typically considered in the sa me light, a discourse has arisen which points to possible simi larities between the two. Whilst context driven art has sought to deal with the economic and social issues inherent in modern art practice, there seem to be other simi larities in both efforts of production which are fundamental to understanding the constructed, creative self within time and within organisation . The artist can , without much imagination, be seen as an entrepreneur who responds to perceived market needs. Art training teaches artists to have an agility and adaptability of response to their surroundings, and artists are more than likely to be self-motivated, aware of their competition and often operating with their own trademark style. But is the envisioning of the artist as a model for the new, engaged, flexible worker partially sighted? The temporal and functional flexibility that makes art practice responsive to the culture that surrounds it seems to be the same flexibility that the business world seeks to promote. Through query however, we may find the model to be a better guidance tool than concrete example.

In its appropriation of the world of part-time work, Prime provides examples of the creative, responsive entrepreneur, and the more common reality of the set, repetitive tasks performed by the poorly paid, part-time worker. In doing so, Prime highlights the disparity between much cultural commentary on the new, flexibl e worker and the reality of today's workplace . lt sets up justifiable parallels between the business model entrepreneur and the modern artist, whilst at the same time criticising this parallel by undermining it with reality.

The level of dedication that artists often apply to their work could be seen as the archetype for all workers. I believe in my product, and I am willing to go to great lengths to see that I achieve my aim. For many, art is a vocation rather than a job, and as such artists can feel a heightened sense of personal responsibility. How could business seek to manufacture this dedication? Would it be by transferring a notion of responsibil ity to the worker? By forcing the handshake between imposed production and selfactualisation? Self-actualisation has always been linked to productivity, though. That business would use this link to increase profit is inevitable, and indicates capitalism 's ability to turn social phenomena to its own means.

'The idea of an individual human life as 'a n enterprise of the self' suggests that no matter what circumstance may have dealt a person, he or she remain s always continuously engaged (even if technically 'unemployed') in that one enterprise , and that it is part of the continuous business of living ... ' (Du Gay, 1996:156) The capitalist ideal : that through hard work, the individual can make what they want of themselves. If the self is an ongoing project to be worked on , one is put in a position of control - There is hope for my future because I can change in this way - and of slavery - I am constantly examining my own deficiencies. The modern self is expected to be

5

pro-active, always self-analyzing and developing; this is true of both the artist and the worker. An internal beauracracy is expected , where rational questions are posed and suggestions for improVements are made, carried through and then monitored.

Unproductive periods are often accompanied by a feeling of wastefulness or guilt; and in this way, an obligation to produce is inherent in an 'enterprise of the self' . ' .. .autobiography - particu larly in the broad sense of an interpretive self history produced by the individual concerned, whether written down or not- is actually at the core of self identity in modern social life.' (Giddens, 1991 :76) Narrative histories, the expression of which is the C.V., show the progression of the individual through time. One's projection of oneself in the world comes to be dominated by the spin involved in building a coherent, marketable life story. Via the gaze of others (and in the language of job appraisals) present, negative circumstances are turned into positive life lessons which have bettered the individu al in the long run. This idea of the unified self is at odds with the multiplicity of roles expected in modern lifestyles, which we understand to be a fragmentation of the self. The discussion that part-time work forces the individual to inhabit various, often conflicting roles reaffirms a Western belief in this non-contrad ictory, continuous self. I tell myself that being a Bar Tender or Waitress is not 'really me '; but if I spend hours and hours pulling pints or serving food, never being myself, then who exactly am I being? Prime forces its collaborators to inhabit multiple, sometimes confli cting roles . Above board, the job description reads as: artist, temporary part-time worker, researcher and investigator. In practice, the feeling that you do not fill a role entirely, or that you do not have enough belief in your role, can leave one feeling fraudulent, like an impostor- which is where Prime intentionally places its workers. For the artist/worker, this scenario raises questions of authenticity, of which self is the most 'true'. Whilst in each role, the individual expresses a part of the self; there is a belief that not al l of the selves can be authentic. Deleuze (1968) uses the idea of masks to explain his ideas on identity constructed by repetition . The mask does not cover an original identity, in fact it disguises nothing . Each mask that an individual puts on constitutes a partial identity. In addition, each mask both forms and is connected to every other mask. In this way, masks are simulacra; they can never be traced back to one beginning. In one sense, identity becomes unified in an enterprise of the self, in another; identity is fragmented by swapp ing ro les or 'multi-tasking .' The oscillation between the idea of a constant narrative and that of fluctuating masks could be a difference in sociological arguments, or it could be an indication of increased demands placed on the worker. What seems to be pertinent to both is a transferal of responsibility from the employer to the (often temporary) employee. Whether this comes in the form of bearing responsibility for a life vocation of constant improvement, or for accepting responsibility for the performance of minute tasks; we are left to wonder how far this notion stretches, and to whose benefit.

A fundamental sh ift in the new workplace is the diversification of time from a standard pattern to the irregu lar and individual. We think of time in the work place as being ruled by indu strial capitalism, the clock rules the mach ine, to which the human body is an appendage. This linear, quantative time of the workplace is measured and regularised.

As soon as time is measured it becomes scarce, which of course makes it valuable .

So now time equals value, equals money - and time becomes a commodity. There are other experiences of time in the workplace, however. The qualitative, subjective time of social engagement, determined by the rhythms of the people present. This version 6

of time is cyclical and event based, it arises through social practice, through implicit rules of behaviour. The modern organisation has a much greater empathy towards the rhythm of social time than industrial capitalism did, growth in the female workforce has enabled working hours to be organised around family duties. On a macro level, we see that a great deal of the service industry revolves around leisure time. If we zoom in, we see that the idea of social time is used by business to create a friendly atmosphere, and therefore a returning trade. As long as it is not too busy, I am actively encouraged by my boss to chat to the customers, to connect with them. Optimistically, we see a recognition of the worker as an individual. Cynically, we can point to the continual commandeering of the social by the economic.

We have a recurrent joke at work. Whenever someone looks like they are working too hard or feeling stressed, their workmate will say to them: 'Five-Seventy an hour.' This is meant as a reminder- you should exert the amount of effort that is a communally agreed equivalent to the wage. Effort then, has a boundary that is monitored by social engagement. Although there is agility to the singular, decision-making in solitary practice can also be more difficult. I don't know when to stop, how to decide what the 'right' amount of work is. For the artist/entrepreneur, the guideline will often rest on strength of feeling, a dedication to the cause. In this instance, the individual has to weigh up the competing elements of perceived reputation, quality of work, available time , and financial reimbursement. The problem in the eyes of business is that the singular can act impudently, with initiative, whereas state forms have to preserve themselves to a certain extent in order to perpetuate and to make rules for those existing within their boundaries. Acting tactically in the workplace can take on many forms, the underlying concern being one of self-interest. One example of this is the practice of 'la perruque' - where workers understand and play with the reading of the body at work in order to win something back for themselves (De Certeau, 1984 ).

Another would be the redirection of stock for the workers purpose. Yet another would be operating in the elasticity of space or time between an employer's knowledge of practice and the reality of practice. How effective is this resistance however, when it follows the outlines of the system?

'The war machine answers to other rules. We are not saying they are better of course, only that they animate a fundamental indiscipline of the warrior, a question of hierarchy, perpetual blackmail by abandonment and betrayal and a very volatile sense of honour, all of which, once again, impedes the formation of the state.' (Deleuze & Guttari, 1987:395) Deleuze and Guttari's war machine, which stands in opposition to state organisation, can be compared to the singular tactics which exist in exteriority to the state. There is a level of speed and secrecy to these tactics that cannot be copied by business as they operate in response to the strictures of business.

'The state has no war machine of its own - it can only appropriate one in the form of a military institution, one that will continually cause it problems.' (Deleuze & Guttari, 1987:391) So as business takes on the form of a rhizome, a network, 'the war machine' which lies outside what business can hope to be - but nevertheless tries to be , is the response of the singular. lt is actually flexible , not an imitation of flexibility.

The idea of networking - treating social encounters as business, is often regarded as crass; from differing points of view it either capitalises on social time or reveals a

7

non-philanthropic basis to human relationships . Everyday interaction - relationships, meetings, gossip - create rhythms and connections 'naturally' which are used in the production of capital. If I have a personal connection to you , you may feel an obligation to complete the task I have set; an obligation which supersedes the purely financial, and this sense of duty helps to shape the informal, verbal contracts around which much of the art world operates . The tension between the social and the economic is nothing new, both create and are created by the other, what appears as new is the frequency and diversification of the exchange. Networking is a prime example of what Du Gay terms the 're-imagination of the social as a form of the economic' (1996: 156) and a prevalent concern of contemporary art practice is how artists can reclaim the economic as a form of the social. The crack that appears in the discourse of the artistas-entrepreneur runs along this line, the line that separates what can be turned into profit from the economically unprofitable. There is a value in non-productive time, time spent gazing at a flashing cursor, which capitalism does not recognise; there is also the value of achievement realised through struggle. Both of these values can be found in art practice.

In itself, Prime darts and slips between the social and the economic, between art and labour. Art uses everyday work as its basis, to generate the production of ideas which are then paid for by Prime; the whole operation revolves within the knowledge economy. Prime simultaneously places its actors in positions of artistic creativity and routine work, setting up conditions that emulate the day-to-day experiences of many artists, but also revealing itself as an artifice, a game. The Prime temp becomes a mystery shopper; the unknown employee of the company, acting like a customer to gain insight into the service of other staff. In addition to this it connects that mystery shopper with an individual reason, a higher purpose for their task. The temp stands to gain financially (in hourly wages and by one-off payment from Prime) and artistically. By impersonating business, Prime achieves, in one sense, what business strives for - a responsive, connected worker. But in this impersonation, Prime also draws our attention to the inevitable separation of the individual from the aim of their employer- holding thought 'above' for one's own purpose. For agents involved in Prime, this is two-fold .

Prime capitalises on the knowledge and ideas that arise through labour practice, it makes them both economically and artistically viable; agents then have to respond tactically to Prime itself as their employer. We could say that Prime allows a dangerous conceit - by utilising the idea of the artist as permanently 'on call' , or of the worker's 'self' as resource to be turned into profit, Prime not only recognises, but also takes part in the struggle between the economic and the social. ' ... the knowledge economy is more an event in economic theory and political rhetoric than a description of current conditions stemming from a deterministic historical process.' (Stapleton, 2002:141) The discourse on creativity, which awards the individual a pseudo-freedom, is being engineered by business and questioned by cultural commentary. I am a freelance entrepreneur, I have self-direction. Whilst we can understand this as a reaction against former modes of capitalism which credited the individual with little self-direction; we can also see that the discourse is self-serving . Capitalism realised the economic value of the creative, singular input; discourse that agrees with the archetype of the artistas-entrepreneur validates it. Undoubtedly, there is an agreement of form between the self aware, agile, responsive artist and the subjectivity required by the idealised new

8

workplace. The disagreement is to be found in the content- in the friction between the economic and the social and the continual reappropriation of one by the other.

Citations Deleuze, G & Guttari, F. (1987), A Thousand Plateaus, Continuum, London, p.391 & 395.

Du Gay, P. (1996), 'Organising Identity: Entrepreneurial Governance and Public Management', Questions of Cultural Identity, (eds. Hall , S. & Du Gay, P. 1996) Sage Publications, London , p.156.

Giddens, A . (1991 ), Modernity and Self- Identity; Self and Society in the Late Modern Age , Polity Press, Cambridge, p.76.

Stapleton, J. (2002), Think Tank Aesthetics :The Art of Economic Dematerialisation, [online]www. jaimestapleton.info/AIPKE%20texts/chapter%20four%20edit.pdf [accessed October 2006], p.141 .

Ellie Harrison From 26 June until 23 July 2006 alongside numerous registrations, interviews for work and a training day, Ellie Harrison worked for 3 days as a temporary office worker at Gleeds (www.gleeds.com) and for 2 days as a data entry and production line worker at M & L Services, both in Nottingham.

Key to Activities Administration

11

•

Art Practice

•

Computer Work

•

activityurriedoutonthecomputer

•

DIY

•

Employment

11 •

11

Exercise active exercise - swimming, jogging. gorge walking etc

11

Shopping Sustenance eatingmealsormacks

Finance

Travelling

maintaining financial rewrds, banking etc

11

Sanitation washing, toi1et,bru~hing teeth, getting drened, preening

being inside a shop for whatever reason - consumerism

paid work. preparation for or ad m in relating to paid wo1k

11

Phone convers31ions on t he phone - incoming or ootgoing

<leaning, tidying, sorting. work around the home

•

Leisure dancing,chattingtofriends,reading,clnema,soclalisingetc

odd jobs, home improvemerm

Domestic Work

Job Seeking job ~ king activity, researching jobs,anending interviews

self-motivated praCiice - making notes, maintaining projech

•

Interim waiting,queuing.faffing. wasting time, insomnia, in·between bits

checking emails,opening pmt,.sorting papeu etc

walking, cycling, travelling by bus, train or car to get from A-B

Inactivity

Notes

unconsciousness, sleeping

diagonal lin ed pa tterns mix two of the listed colours when two activities have occurred simultaneou~ly. For example Leisure and Sustenance would miK if a meal was eaten whilu watching television. Art Practice and Travelling would miK if notes were madewhilstonatrain.

Key to Locations •

Home

m

Place of Leisure I Other

:m:

outside

1ii

Place of Employment

~

Vehicle

9

Four timelines from a series of twenty-eight that kept a record of all that Ellie Harrison did during the month that she was employed by Prime. Please see website: www.undercoverartists.org.

3July2006

I

17 July2006

RI

24 July2006

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I

I

NON -STANDARD WORK IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN Stephen Edgell

The purpose of this article is to put non-standard work, especially part-time work, in early twenty-first century Britain into historical and sociological context. This will be done with special reference to the work placements, (but not the artwork created in response to them), of the three artists commissioned by Prime to work for a four week period in a low-wage job during the summer of 2006. The three artists were Ellie Harrison (UK), Liz Kearney (UK) and Joanna Spitzner (USA) each of whom undertook a range of jobs in Nottingham, Liverpool and Blackpool respectively. The focus on artists is very apt since they are frequently constrained to engage in non-standard work in order to support themselves as practising artists. The analysis is constructed around the work experiences of the artists and , where appropriate , I shall quote for illustrative purposes only from their Blogs which document their progress. This article will therefore combine representative data from theoretically informed empirical social research on non-standard work in contemporary Britain and non-representative case study data provided by the artists.

Recent History of Part-Time Work in Britain During the second half of the twentieth century part-time employment, or time related underemployment as it is sometimes known, expanded in Britain from less than five per cent of the labour force to nearly twenty-five per cent (Hakim 1996). This expansion of part-time work was highly gendered and by 2004 women constituted the minority of fulltime employees (less than forty per cent) but the majority of part-time employees (over eighty per cent). The latest Equal Opportunities Commission data for 2005 shows that 42% of women aged between 16-64 were employed part-time in 2005, whereas the figure for men was 9%, or to put it another way, only 58% per cent of women worked full-time compared with 91% of men (www.eoc.org.uk).

The tendency for women to be over represented in part-time work and men in fulltime work is related to the persistence of the dominant conception of work dating not from the rise, but the development of industrial capitalism in Britain around one hundred years ago (Edgell 2005). This model is characterized by a male breadwinner and female homemaker and although more women are entering the labour market than ever before, they still tend to retain major responsibility for all things domestic.

Part-time work fits this model well since it allows women to work outside the home for pay, yet also allows them to continue to take the main responsibility for child-care and domestic chores . Thus , one study concluded that: ' ... the sheer weight of empirical evidence makes it difficult to contradict the broad assertion that many, if not the majority of part-time jobs have been constructed for women¡ (Crompton and Sanderson 1990: 168). This is aside from students, and retirees who are also prominent in the part-time employment population in contemporary Britain.

The main reasons for the decline in standard work, that is male, permanent, full -time employment, and the growth of non-standard work, namely any type of employment which does not conform to the former, notably part-time work, are the growth of service sector work at the expense of industrial sector work and the consequent need for a more flexible labour force. Part-time employment is the largest type of non-standard

12

work; the other most important types numerically in contemporary Britain are selfemployment at approximately ten per cent of the labour force and temporary work at around five per cent. However, since part-time work is often associated with other forms of non-standard employment situations, such as self-employed , part-time and temporary part-time, simply adding up the incidence of the different types of nonstandard work overstates the extent of the decline of standard work. Estimates of the extent of non-standard work in Britain suggest that about one third of the labour force is employed currently on a non-standard basis (Edgell 2005) From Unemployment to Underemployment Unemployment is essentially a negative experience. lt invariably involves a loss of income, status, time structure, social contact, self-esteem, and sometimes a loss of identity (Edgell2005). Moreover, prolonged unemployment can damage one's health, especia lly mental health (Smith 1987). Such is the stigma of being unemployed, which can be acute if work is a central life interest, some peop le attempt to conceal their unemployment from family and friends . This was illustrated clearly in the film The Full Monty (1997) in which the most middle class of the redundant workers featured continued to pretend to be employed until his wife suggested a relatively expensive holiday abroad ! Unsurprisingly given the socio-econom ic significance of employment and the multiple losses associated with unemployment, the main priority for the unemployed is to find paid work.

However, the search for employment is often more difficult than expected; even skilled workers have expressed shock about the cha lleng ing experience of search ing for a job (Sinfield 1981 ). Among the artists involved in the project, El lie recorded in her Blog that she was 'unprepared for how difficult it would be to get a job' and that she found the whole experience ' bewildering¡. Simi larly, although Liz was ' under no illusion that even the least skilled, low-paid jobs are not always easy to come by', she too found that finding work was ' more difficult, and more complex than anyone had first imagined ' . Initial optimism soon evaporates, as Joanna noted after only one week, and expectations are lowered with many accepting less well paid work involving a decline in ski ll and status. Looking for work typically involves many hours, days, weeks, sometimes months, of being thorough , organized, determined , and flexible, plus the emotional stress of completing application forms, often unanswered , going for interviews and experiencing rejection/failure. Ellie exemplified well these personal attributes in that she set up a 'job seeking HQ' on her dining table and followed up various leads cu lled from advertisements in the local press. Liz also went to great lengths to obtain work: ' I undertook secret fact-finding missions to check out the store in operation, researched the company and the products that it sold . I tailored my C.V. and wrote a covering letter and hand delivered it to the store¡ . Liz did not even receive a reply. Thus, the process of finding a job is very hard, demoralizing work which puts a premium on being able to ride out the peaks and troughs of repeatedly raised and lowered expectations. The search for work often ends in reducing one's standards, as all the artists discovered .

Success of getting a job, and the ' relief (EIIie) and 'thrill' (Joanna) it occasions, often depends on who you know rather than what you know, indicating that informal family and friendship networks are often critical in getting a job in a competitive labour market.

In the Sinfield study of unemployed men, informal contacts were instrumental for over

13

half who eventually found work and among the artists all three reported using family and/or friends in the process of job hunting.

Failure to obtain full -time employment often leads the unemployed to consider alternatives, such as part-time job(s), temporary work, self-employment, voluntary work, and/or off the books work. These may be less desirable options in terms of pay, security, prospects, and so on , but after a period of unemployment, it is often a case of faute de mieux [for want of better] . This is confirmed by research based on a nationally representative sample surveyed in Britain which found that part-time, temporary and self-employment were the main routes out of unemployment during the mid-1990's (White and Forth 1998). The options which had the most deleterious social and economic consequences were part-time work for men and women , and temporary employment for women. In one of the few studies of unemployed women, Coyle (1984) reported that women are sometimes left no choice but to take on two part-time jobs to be able to earn an income that was still less than one full-time wage. This is indicative of the desperation to find work experienced by most unemployed people, men and women, a feeling that is detectable from the numerous job applications, telephone calls, and job agency registrations reported by Ellie, Liz, and Joanna who alone made over fifty job applications.

After considerable effort, Ellie obtained eventually a couple of temporary agency jobs and discovered for herself the ·menial' , 'tedious ' , 'degrading ' and ' no-pay unless you signed people up·, typical of such work, for employers who were economical with the truth about the actual conditions , pay, and even nature of the employment on offer.

Understandably, Ellie felt ·anger at being tricked into this situation·, namely working long hours on a commission only basis as part of a door-to-door sales ·racket' .

Self-employment is simultaneously the most precarious and poorly paid form of nonstandard work yet the option with the most potential for high intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, such as autonomy and a good income (Edgell 2005). However, for the previously unemployed, notwithstanding the availability of state financial assistance, plus potentially the support of family and friends, such a move is very risky in that the outcome is often at best low pay and at worst failure (McDonald 1996). Little wonder that only a small proportion of those who take this route are unemployed (Hakim 1998).

In keeping with this tendency, Liz, after her close encounter with 'working from home initiatives ... seams· , and exploring the possibility of selling her artwork (for example, gift cards) at craft fairs , ' [I] decided , as a last resort, to work at car boot sales'. This was in a part-time, self-employed capacity selling her own hand crafted goods, plus unwanted items collected from ' friends, family and work colleagues·. Liz calculated that over a four week period the pecuniary reward for all her artwork, collecting , and selling amounted to less than the National Minimum Wage for those under 21 , which at the time was £4 .25 an hour.

Another alternative to unemployment is to undertake unpaid , expenses only, voluntary work, although the employed are more likely to opt for such work than the unemployed (Edgell 2005). To compensate for the lack of remuneration, otherwise unemployed voluntary workers often gain valuable experience which may enhance their paid work prospects. Furthermore, voluntary work typically involves a strong element of job satisfaction due partly to the ' gift' dimension , but also to the more caring and egalitarian character of voluntary organizations. Joanna certainly found this to be the case since she reported that those she worked with at the charity ' were the kindest people she 14

had ever worked with' and that everyone worked together and shared meals together.

Such work can also boost one's self-esteem, and help to relieve boredom and sustain motivation during the trying search for paid employment (Eiam and Thomas 1997).

Beck's Destandardization of Work Thesis The most important and controversial debate about underemployment is Beck's thesis that non-standard employment, of which part-time employment is the most numerically significant, is expanding at the expense of standard work and that this involves a deterioration in employees' terms and conditions of employment (Beck 1992, 2000).

In Beck's own words; instead of a simple system of full-time work and unemployment, both decline and are replaced by a new more complex pattern of work characterized by a ' risk-fraught system of flexible , pluralized, decentralized underemployment' (1992: 143). In the case of Britain, ' which once pioneered the standardization of work, [it] is now pioneering its individualization ' , which tends to be accompanied by a marked decline in trade union membership and hence collective power (Beck 2000: 56). Most of the expansion of destandardized employment is in the form of part-time work, the bulk of which, as we have noted already, is undertaken by women . Thus women in contemporary Britain are in the vanguard of the destandardization of work process.

There are therefore two key dimensions of Beck's destandardization of work thesis, one quantitative and one qualitative. In other words, non-standard work is expanding and such work tends to be inferior in terms of pay and conditions than standard work. The key question is to what extent is this true for the different types of non-standard work?

Bearing in mind the overlap between different types of non-standard work, in the case of part-time work, its growth predates the decline of standard work which occurred during the 1970's (Robinson 2000). Also, notwithstanding the diversity of part-time work, it has been shown that the majority of part-timers are permanent (Purcell 2000) and that they have no less job security than full-timers (Gallie et al. 1998). However, there is evidence to show that part-time workers are more likely than full-time workers to experience low pay, no sick pay, no pension and no career ladder (McGovern et al.

2004 ). In short, many part-time jobs, particularly temporary ones, are renowned for their high levels of exploitation and oppression, features that were all too familiar to Ellie whose varied work experiences included an unpaid training day in door-to-door cold calling sales on the 'hottest day of the year' and low-paid agency work for 'a nother dodgy business' in a warehouse on a ' bleak industrial estate' undertaking ' pointless tasks to impress late visitors'.

As far as temporary work and self-employment are concerned, they have expanded in Britain over the past twenty-five years but from a low base , particularly temporary work, and the level of self-employment seems to have reached a plateau . In terms of pay and conditions; temporary work tends to be insecure and not well paid whereas the picture for self-employment is mixed in that, as noted above, it offers the potential for high earnings, albeit at the cost of long hours, but is also fraught with difficulties, not least making a living, as Liz can testify after her experience as a car boater.

Total destandardization, namely off the books work, is invariably of an inferior quality compared with all other types of work, standard and non-standard, by virtue of it being hidden from public scrutiny, and therefore beyond the prevailing legal minimum standards of pay and conditions. Hence it conforms to Beck's expectations regarding a decline in the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of work as the destadardization process 15

advances, but since it is invisible there is no way of knowing whether or not it has expanded since the advent of the decline in standard work in the 1970's {Edgell 2005).

All things considered , the evidence from contemporary Britain suggests uneven support for the Beck destandardization thesis in that the expansion of non-standard work seems to have stalled , although at the lower reaches of the labour market his worst fears regarding the growth of the poor quality, low-paid work is amply justified. This is especially the case for temporary agency workers, as Ellie found, and even more so for those who work off the books, as the 2004 tragedy of the Morecambe Bay Chinese cockle pickers confirms.

Beck's suggestion that trade unions are in terminal decline as the twin processes of destandardization and individualization advance may be premature. Union membership in Britain fell every year between 1979 and 1997, but it has since shown signs of a mini-revival. This suggests that, among others things, the trade union movement is beginning to address the needs of non-standard workers and that the issues that first prompted workers to combine together, such as pay and cond itions, still resonate with employees at the beginning to the twenty-first century. Interestingly the isolation and hence vulnerability experienced by the three artists prompted them to join together and form a union to generate support and representation, the Union of Undercover Artists (for details on the UAA see www.undercoverartists.org). This positive move parallels the emergent tendency for non-standard workers in the private and voluntary sectors to become union members.

Conclusions The representative British data suggests that the quantitative dimension of Beck's destandardization thesis is exaggerated and that the qualitative dimension is well supported , apart that is for the job security element for part-timers. The micro case study data provided by the three artists echoes the macro representative findings in that their reported work placement experiences were uniformly of low-paid and poor quality work. Thus in Britain at the beginning of the twenty-first century, obtaining a suitable non-standard job is hard work and often results in undesirable work for unscrupulous employers. Ellie' s experience for one organization in particular exemplifies the distasteful reality of some employers' conduct towards those desperate for work. However, since the passing of the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations in 2000 and the subsequent amendments in 2002, inspired by the current government's enthusiasm for flexible labour, the prospects for part-time employees appear brighter. These new regulations are intended to ensure the same treatment of part-time and full-time workers with respect to pay, access to pensions and training, and entitlements to annual leave, maternity/paternity leave, and sick pay (www.dti .gov.uk/employment). Yet I am less than sanguine about the future pay and conditions of part-time workers given the recrudescence of Victorian values since Thatcherism {Edgell and Duke 1991 ). More specifically, many employers in contemporary Britain manifest casualization and sweat-shop values that have unacceptable economic and social consequences for employees. In these circumstances, the need for trade unions to protect workers from the worst excesses of competitive free market capitalism could not be clearer. After all, as Thorstein Veblen noted , capita lism is quintessentially ' predatory' (Edgell2001: 117).

16

Acknowledgements I wish to thank Steven Renshaw of Prime for inviting me to contribute to this project and for his positive attitude throughout. Appreciation is also due to the three artists, Ellie Harrison, Liz Kearney and Joanna Spitzner for providing such rich data and allowing me to quote from their Blogs. Finally, I am grateful for the constructive comments provided by all those involved; needless to say the usual disclaimers hold .

References Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage .

Beck, U. (2000) The Brave New World of Work. Cambridge: Polity.

Coyle, A. (1984) Redundant Women . London : Women 's Press.

Crompton , R. and Sanderson, K. (1990) Gendered Jobs and Social Change . London: Unwin Hyman.

Edgell , S. (2001) Thorstein Veblen in Perspective: His Life and Thought. New York: Myron E.Sharpe.

Edgell, S. (2005) The Sociology of Work: Continuity and Change in Paid and Unpaid Work. London: Sage .

Edgell, S and Duke, V. (1991) A Measure of Thatcherism: A Sociology of Britain.

London: HarperCollins.

Elam, G. and Thomas, A. (1997) Stepping Stones to Employment: Part-time Work and Voluntary Activities whilst Claiming Out-of-work Security Benefits.

Department of Social Security, Research Report No. 71 . London: HMSO .

Gallie, D. et al. (1998) Restructuring the Employment Relationship. Oxford: OUP. Hakim, C. (1996) Key Issues in Women 's Work: Female Heterogeneity and the Polarization of Women's Employment. London : Athlone.

Hakim, C. (1998) Social Change and Innovation in the Labour Market. Oxford: OUP. McDonald, R. (1996) ' Welfare dependency, the enterprise culture and self-emp loyed survival', Work, Employment and Society, 10 (3): 431 -4 7.

McGovern, P. et al. (2004) 'Bad jobs in Britain : non-standard employment and job quality¡, Work and Occupations, 31 (2): 225-49.

Purcell, K. (2000) 'Gendered employment insecurity', in E. Heery and J. Salmon (eds), The Insecure Workforce. London: Routledge. pp. 112-39.

Robinson , R. (2000) ¡Insecurity and the flexible workforce: measuring the ill-defined ', in E. Heery and J. Salmon (eds), The Insecure Workforce . London: Routledge. pp. 25-38.

Sinfield , A. (1981) What Unemployment Means. Oxford : Martin Robertson.

Smith , R. (1987) Unemployment and Health . Oxford: OUP. White, M. and Forth, J. (1998) Pathways Through Unemployment: The Effects of a Flexible Labour Market. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation/York Publishing Service.

17

Elizabeth Kearney Elizabeth Kearney worked from 26 June until 24 July 2006 completing 4 Sunday car boot sales beginning on 2 July at "Warrington's Favourite Carboot Sale". (www.yourcarbootsale.co.uk)

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Images. Two from a series of four mugs produced during 'Part-time' . Please see www.undercoverartists.org

20

Joanna Spitzner

From 8 May until 14 June 2006 Joanna Spitzner applied for 55 jobs and was employed at The Henderson Hotel, Blackpool, Lancashire (19 May-13 June) and for a day in June with the Edge Fami ly, who run donkey rides on Blackpool beach.

For Part-time, I chose Blackpool as the location for which to get a job. Something about Blackpool appealed to me - of going to a place where workers spent their leisure time, yet going there in an attempt to be a worker.

I didn't really know much more about Blackpool until a few weeks before I went there , and John K. Walton's book Blackpool was my main reference. lt wasn't until the railroads were developed that it became a destination, due to cheap railway tickets, excellent promotion, and its close proximity to Lancashire mill towns . Local traditions also played a role. Wakes Weeks were an important part of the annual rhythm in Lancashire. In the industrial era, this became the one week in which the factories would close. Families would save all year for their holiday, and often the entire town would go to Blackpool together.

For the most part, people came for the affordable attractions in Blackpool. This included theater and music shows, sideshows, fairs, and its three piers and the Tower. Boarding houses sprang up, many run by women. Although it was a place of freedom from work, because tourists came with their families and commun ities, their behavior on holiday didn't stray too far from the norm.

I am interested in this economic history because it is one based on leisure. In the West, the loss of an economic base, usually manufacturing, is a familiar story, and we are all wondering what to do next. Tourism is often seen as an avenue for economic development. But what does a place whose only industry is tourism do? lt too has suffered losses from changes in industry - the cotton industry. I felt that many people came to Blackpool because of nostalgia. I could see this in the traditions that were still maintained - Blackpool rock, fortune telling , joke shops, ballroom dancing, donkey rides on the beach. But as I got to know some of the people who worked maintaining these traditions, it seemed a hard scrabble. Some jobs had already disappeared - like carrying bags at the train station or running bathing huts and pleasure boats. Others seemed on the verge of disappearing, the only promise for the future is mega casinos .

Blackpool's businesses have also been greatly consolidated. A few companies own the piers and the Tower, the Golden Mile and its arcades, and even the pubs.

There is an immigrant population in Blackpool, some Pakistanis and a large Polish work force. I felt like an odd immigrant, being dropped off in a place, knowing no - one but needing to find a way to get by. I decided to apply at pubs, hotels, and at all the major amusement places. I went door to door, to over 50 doors, asking if there were any job vacancies. I used a machine at The Winter Gardens to make business cards that advertised that I was a good worker for low wages .

On my second week of the job search I stumbled into The Henderson Hotel. lt seemed that they had nothing either. But as I handed the woman my card , she mentioned that they did need staff. There was something about her that seemed kind ; she seemed troubled that she couldn 't help me. I told her I would work for free. She and her husband - Mrs. and Mr. C -and I talked it over. They accepted my proposal, although I could see it made them uneasy; they insisted on paying my "expenses".

21

I also started on an idea to try to gather videotaped interviews with workers in Blackpool. Much like searching for a job, I started going door to door asking people if I could interview them about work.

My second interview was with Carol Marley at Rock Candy Kingdom . Carol eventually took me in. She directed me to people who I could interview, including her father, who was continuing a family tradition of selling seafood on the beach. She also introduced me to her family and friends, and soon I was spending most of my free time hanging out with them.

The other family I got to know was the Edge family. Sue, her hu sband , and fourteen year old son Adam gave donkey rides on the beach, often with her two young daughters nearby. I eventually volunteered to work for them for one day- a ten-hour day - during a week when the hotel was closed.

I fell into a certain rhythm. I would work in the mornings at the Henderson Hotel, spend my afternoons tracking down interviews, and then connect with Carol for a drink, usually many, at the St. Anne's Club or elsewhere.

A usual day involved first helping to finish the breakfast preparations. Sometimes there was laundry to fold. I would make toast while Karen, the cook, would be finishing up the bacon, sausage, eggs, etc. We would set out the "starters" - juice, fruit, and cereal, and make the tea and coffee. We then donned aprons and headscarves, grabbed a pad of paper and a pen, and checked the menu . We rang the bell to tell the guests breakfast is ready, and then stood by the entrance to the dining room to greet the guests.

Three of us worked the dining room, first taking orders for starters and serving it. Once finished, we would clear those plates and take orders for breakfast. In the kitchen Karen and Mr. C. would serve up each plate as we recited the order. We'd add toast and go out and serve. Next was going around with coffee and tea , and placing teapots and hot water on the tables . We would go around with extra toast and extra sausage, etc. The starters were put away, and trays set down for dirty dishes. As people finished their breakfast, we would clear dishes away. Mr. or Mrs. C. would come out and take dinner orders, after which the guests would wander away.

Two of us would stay in the dining room. The other person would go in to wash dishes.

In the dining room , we would strip off the tablecloths and wipe the placemats. The jelly dishes would be put away. We would then put on the dinner tablecloths, reset the placements, fold the dinner napkins, and refill the butter and sugar trays. As soon as the silverware gets washed, we would set the table - small fork, large fork, teaspoon, desert spoon and knife, as well as teacup and saucer. I would usually Hoover the floor.

We would all then sit down for breakfast - Mr. and Mrs. C. in the dining room; the staff in the kitchen.

After eating breakfast, we would disperse. I would join Lynda and Michelle cleaning rooms. I usually cleaned the bathrooms which involved cleaning the sink and the toilet, emptying the rubbish bin , refolding or replacing the towels, and perhaps spraying a little air freshener. In the bedroom, the tea tray would be reset, rubbish bin emptied, and the beds made. Meanwhile, the cook would do some prep for dinner and then leave. it would take a little over an hour to clean the rooms . Afterwards, we would bring dirty tea mugs and laundry downstairs, and put away all of our cleaning stuff. We would then help with lunch, which was sandwiches and usually tea or coffee, and it was served in the lounge. I would usually leave after this .

I worked from 19 May until 13 June. In reflection , and while still processing

22

this experience , I felt that the work I did as an "artist"- that is, videotaping , far overshadowed my actual job. I did feel like a worker tourist, just wandering through experiencing a job as one would go to Pleasure Beach. I often felt like I was translating two cultures at once - British culture , and (British) working class culture. Tourism is about curiosity, about having different experiences, seeing the world. lt can be and is superficial. Some tourists seek the authentic, and while that would be impossible and complicated to claim for myself, I hope to keep Blackpool meaningful.

Joanna Spitzner Work for sale

"'An excellent worl<er at low wages!"

Call 07704 995686

JOANNA SPITZNER 07704 995686

QUALITY WORK AT LOW WAGES

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Images. From a series of postcards produced by Joanna Spitzner concerning her time in Blackpool. Please see www.undercoverartists.org

24

www.undercoverar!Jsts,(l"'g

Steven Renshaw Mark Smith Prime Flat 2, Sefton Court 103·1 05 Ullet Road Liverpool L17 2AB

15 July 2006 Dear Prime, As an organization interested in aspects of working life, you are no doubt aware of the role of unions in the history of work. Unions, at their best, have contributed to creating better work practices and have provided a means for building solidarity among workers. In the 'Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (c. 52)' the meaning of a 'lrade union" is defined as: .. .an organisation (whether temporary or permanent)(a) which consists wholly or mainly of workers of one or more descriptions and whose principal purposes include the regulation of relations between workers of that description or those descriptions and employers or employers' associations; I am writing on behalf of the employees of Prime, to inform you that they have unionized, and are now members of the Union of Undercover Artists. The objectives of the UUA are: To organize all those employed as artists by Prime. '· To promote, safeguard and improve the interests and status of members and the Union as a whole.

To provide a vehicle by which members can communicate and discuss ideas and experiences In all matters relating to projects undertaken with Prime.

To improve communication between Prime and its employees and to encourage and maintain good employment practices.

To work with all other Interested parties, Individuals and organisations to maintain and Improve the quality of artistic services delivered to the public.

From now on, the UUA will be the primary means of ·communication between Prime and its employees. In 'Statutory Instrument 2000 No. 1300, The Trade Union Recognition (Method of Collective Bargaining) Order 2000', "voluntary procedural agreements between employers and unions' are encouraged. We therefore ask that you voluntarily recognize the UUA. The UUA does not wish to be adversarlal, but rather foster good working relationships. Please direct all written and oral communication with your employees to the UUA, at tina@undercoverartiats.org, and a representative will contact you In a timely manner.

We look forward to working with you In order to develop the best possible project.

Sincerely,

T~~~

Tlna Gurley Flynn

On behalf of Ellle Harrlson Elizabeth Kearney Joanna Spltzner

The Union of Undercover Artists was formed In July 2006 to be the collective. representative voice of the three artists taking part In 'Part-Ume' - the nrst project run by Prtme. They are Ellle Harrtson (UK), Blzabeth Kearney (UK) and Joanna Spltzner (US).

Acting as an employment agency of sorts, Prime, co~rdlnated by artist Steven Renshaw and Mark Smith, was set up to Investigate the relationship between the employment that artists undertske and the artwork that they produce.

For 'Part-time' the artists were commlasloned to spend a four week pertod working 'undercover' In a tow-wage job. The Idea was that they generate work In response to their experiences and new surroundings.

From May - August2006 the three 'artiSts undertook a number of work placements across the UK In Blackpool, Liverpool and- Notongham.

During this perlod they began a three-way dialogue based on a mutual understanding of the experience or looking for and undertaking these 'undercover" posts In societyan Isolating and unusual situation caught 99meWhere between Investigative journalism, soCial tourlsm and role-play gaming.

In order to formalise this dialogue and to address the Shared concerns of the three artists. with their employer Prlme, they deCided to form a union. On 29 May 2006 they met with Tin a Gurtey Aynn- an expertancad union worker Who had expressed a great Interest In the project

Gurtey Flynn was unanimously elected the artists' 'shop steward' and spokeswoman and the Union or Undercover Artists was born.

In the short term the Union of Undercover Artists alms to be a reactionary group acting as arbitrator between Prlme and Its employees. ~alms to be a forum for discussion around the themes emerging from the expertence of'Part-Ume' and to assist and support the artists taking part In tile project In the long term the UUA hopes to expand. drawing aUention to the laCk of support or representation for Individuals working In the visual arts sector and to go somewhere towards 1 this void.

www.undercoverartists.org

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'The Foreman, the Clock and the Machine' Steven Renshaw 'After the revolution, who's going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?'

Mierle Laderman Ukeles The Call Centre After typing my personal code into my keypad at the start of sh ift until I logged out at the end, all of my activity was recorded and monitored. The number of calls I took, length of 'ca ll-time', how long I took in-between calls, how long I kept customers on hold, how long I took for break, how many 'personal' breaks I took and for how long, (no more than one 5 minute of these per 4-hour sh ift was allowed). I had to record how many sa les 'approaches' I made, on what products and whether I sold anything in order to match against my daily and weekly targets. All information accumulated, printed off and signed for every week.

Attempting to find ways around the keypad to allow moments of respite was called 'abuse'. Similar to what Wall Mart calls 'time theft' (Ehrenreich, 2002, p145) and Sainsbury's call 'idle time'. As a result the potential of being monitored or being listened-in on acted as a tool for control. The observer need not be visible when the threat of constant surveillance prevents the employee from doing anyth ing other than total commitment to the task at hand, forced towards a 'totally useful time' (Foucaun, 1977, p150).

Each section had guidelines that had to be adhered to ('compliance') or your team leader would intervene. Discipline was often implemented using talk about X amount of wasted minutes costing the bank X amount of money in wages for missed sales opportunities. 'Action Plans' corrected behaviour and were filled out with team leaders concerning lateness, overrunning at break, or being off sick too frequently.

Training processes were constantly underway in order to whittle potentials from nohopers. For part-timers this was an 8-week series of classroom-based activities to prepare for working the phones. lt was a demanding experience and exaggerated that no amount of training prepares you for the real thing - in this case taking your first live call and then making a sales attempt. Our initial group of 8 resulted in 4 jobs at the end of training.

I became fascinated with jargon. Buzz meetings, eagle awards, the cal l centre 'community', 'championing' new regulations, 'overcoming objections' when selling on the telephone, BROTH customer relations; Be easy to do business with Reward my loyalty Offer me what I need Treat me as an individual Help me with my finances and others I have flushed from my mind. Dress-down days encouraged employees not to think of themselves at work but hanging about in their own clothes with their mates -turn ing work from labour into social activity. Games and incentives not only provided challenge and fun but promised to reward hard work and loyalty. There was even a 27

Barclays University where employees could access a myriad of different courses. Carey Young has written about "Normative Control" (Mir, 2003, p24) where a corporation instils the belief in its workers that their 'life goals' or potential can be achieved, at least in part, through the corporation (2003, p24 ), someth ing I saw happening all around me.

Some people didn't seem to mind working here - everyone I spoke to had other plans.

I was paid ÂŁ6 .50 per hour and worked 20 hours per week for another 3 months after training .

Prime (The organisation) and 'Part-time' (The project) The art project Prime was initiated in part to make sense of these precarious yet common work experiences. Prime was to be treated both as a piece of my own artwork and an enabling structure for other artists to work within, therefore my role oscillated between producer and facilitator. Through Prime I evolved a structure in which I outsourced the work of exploring the following ideas to artists, through initiating the project 'Part-time'. 'Part-time' aimed to blur the roles between artist, curator, project manager and employer. The project drew attention to a wider cu ltural shift in creative 'industries', from a manufacturing to service I information economy (Edgell, 2006, p2).

I have gained more income through non-art means than I have when employed as an artist since I graduated, therefore; Is there a reason that some artists have to take part-time jobs - are they simply not very good artists?

Or ... Does working part time, in low status jobs come at a certain time in your art 'career'?

Does demand outstrip supply?

Is working part-time, in low status jobs a compromise, and should artists be striving for better employment prospects and career opportunities?

If so ... how do artists survive in the lean employment periods?

Heavily influenced by the changes taking place within the wider work climate (summed up in the jobcentre advert tagline that I regularly saw This is a temporary ongoing position') Part-time explored a situation where; 'New vacancies tend to be fixed term, until further notice and part-time. They are often combined with other occupations and deprived of any safeguards of continuity, let alone of permanence. The catchword is flexibility, and this increasingly fashionable notion stands for a game of hire and fire with very few rules attached, but with power to change the rules unilaterally while the game is still being played' (Bauman, 2005, p27).

'Part-time' stemmed from what I saw as a similarity between when I have been employed (under contract and not) as an artist and when employed (under contract) in other industries, not as an artist. All employment was either short-term, or considered to be short-term, while I searched for other opportunities I someth ing more desirable.

The precarious nature of work is drawn attention to when considering the written and often tacit agreements used between artists and arts organisations. If anything went wrong in the commissioning or delivery of the contracted artwork, on whose side would the law fall? If you are party to a contractual agreement, would that stand up to legal scrutiny? How many times have you worked without signing a contract? What other

28

industries expect their employees to work above and beyond those hours contracted (or not contracted) for?

The link between labour and leisure, work and free-time, especially in relation to the romantic image of the always at work artist, unalienated from their labour, is raised within 'Part-time'. Making art is conventionally seen as something that is carried out outside of paid contracted work. While at the same time, within the Fine Art 'industry', making art is often referred to as making work. 'Part-time' involved three artists placements into work situations in order to examine the notion of part-time work and its relationship to the contemporary artist. Prime collaborated with each artist towards gaining them part-time paid employment - each placement lasting for a minimum of one month and continuing until the artist decided to terminate employment. At no time during the placement was the artists employer to be made aware of the project. In return, each associate received a commissioning fee alongside the wage paid by the placement company. The fee covered work done outside of placement hours towards developing an artwork. The artwork could take any form that the artist saw fit, subject to negotiation with Prime.

'Part-time' tried to concentrate upon low status , unskilled jobs that would be easy to gain and can be discarded just as easily once their use value has been used up. I wanted to set up a scenario that mirrored the way in which I have been operating as an artist since graduating from a Fine Art degree. 'Part-time' was similar to a conventional artists residency in that it offered each artist time to concentrate on their art. Although unlike a conventional residency that exists to free artists from the daily grind of parttime work, with 'Part-time' the onus is upon the nature of work itself. There is no removal of the day-to-day realities of employment and labour in order to provide space for thought and reflection. The everyday realities of part-time work become the artist's subject - making public the normally private world of precarious employment.

'Part-time' seeks to reclaim employment for the employee. The artists as employees were encouraged to treat jobs and the companies that offer them in the same way that companies treat their workers - as expendable commodities used to squeeze profit from an increasingly competitive market. 'Part-time' offers artists a way in which to re-claim what may otherwise be wasted time i'n a 'dead-end' job. Emphasising, as stated by Neil Cummings (1 ), 'the fact that artists could take this dead time and turn it into symbolic capital - an artwork, and therefore reverse the conventional logic of employment.'

The Union Alongside separate and individual contracted artworks the most powerful outcome to 'Part-time' was the artists decision to unionise, and the work that led to and took place around this decision. The artists informed me by letter dated 15 July 2006 that they had formed the Union of Undercover Artists, www.undercoverartists.org, and would communicate with me through their union representative Tina Gurley Flynn . The union was set up primarily to improve communication between Prime and its employees - who where residing in three different counties. The union immediately complicated communication as the three artists began to contact me individually using the union email address and pretending to be Tina . Tina was also unable to talk on the telephone due to not being a real person. I made the decision early on that I had to look at managing the 'Part-time' project from three perspectives - the first as artist, the second as the project manager and the third as the director of Prime and therefore employer

29

of the part-time artists. As the director of Prime I would deal I or not deal with the union and the project manager I artist would communicate with the artists directly. I soon became tired of dealing with the union via email alone and the misunderstandings that this caused. r The crux of 'Part-time' (and what became a problem that the union brought to the fore) is that it could never actually become q worker and employee situation, it could only ever mirror the conditions through which it was conceived to address. When Prime paid the artists to do the project, the employment that they did became secondary to the art that they had been commissioned to produce. The artists became visitors or 'social tourists' as the UUA website states and not real part-time employees, (although the irony is they were already part-time employees). The project turned precarious labour into art activity. The initial difficulty for Prime and the artists focussed the project upon the search for work, and therefore changed Part-time's intentions from the start. Only Joanna took a part-time job for an entire month, and although she was eventually paid, this post was essentially voluntary due to her illegal work status in the UK. Therefore, the act of looking for work became a work activity carried out by an artist and paid for

by Prime.

By commissioning (under contract) the artists to produce an artwork in response to a job, I essentially invited them to think about the nature of art. What I actually intended was that the artists critique the new workplace that they found themselves in.

I expected each artist to gain employment and then to begin to construct ideas about what they might do with this, instead of forming ideas of what they might do before they started - but why should they? Some of the artists did not want to work within the structure that had been set and were initially reluctant to take jobs, being less interested in employment than their own art practice. The McJob became something that some of the artists where unwilling to engage with even in the pursuit of art. Even after fruitless job searches and disgust at some experiences while working, one artist decided not to develop material I saw as encapsulating the project and which would focus it upon the type of employment being explored.

My intentions as an employer, and the artist commissioning the artworks were not being fulfilled. When there was no defined outcome in terms of exhibition, publication, website etc, this led to a difficulty with producing artworks for the artists. As an employer I realised the contract I had with the artists was too vague and imprecise. This focussed my attention upon what those who commission art must face all the time . 'I have hired you on the strength of your previous work, but that is not what I am looking for from you here'. There is a difficult line between an artist operating autonomously while also being challenged by the expectations of the commissioning body and the new work situation that they find themselves in. In retrospect some of the artwork could have been produced irrespective of being involved in 'Part-time' .

The creation of the union made it easier for me to then concentrate the project upon its core issue - the notion of being employed part-time by someone else. I therefore decided not to recognise the union and refused to enter into critical dialogue with it and its members. 'Part-time' ended at the point when the project moved from mimicking the working world to actually replicating its conditions . The union forces the artists into the role of employees and therefore forces me into the role of employer. At this point the artists ceased to be 'social tourists' in the world of precarious employment and I was no longer an artist collaborating with fellow artists on making an artwork, but a dissatisfied 30

employer. 'Part-time' was intended as a critique of employment and issues that surround it. Therefore, I felt that the union as an artwork or a creative response to the commission should be treated 'in character' as an employer, and this meant challenging its legality.

Statutory recognition of a union within any workplace must take place if that union has 21 members or more, otherwise an employer must decide whether to do this voluntarily (please see www.cac.gov.uk). Only an act of generosity (and a willingness to role-play) on the part of Prime would sustain its existence within 'Part-time'. Does this mean that (as the employer, who contracted the artists work) I am choosing not to recognise the artists' work as the union as a valid artwork?

The artists essentially did not reflect on their experiences of work, they reflected on the experience of working for Prime. The real workplace turned out to be the one created

by Prime between itself and the artists that it employed. The reasons for this are as yet unclear. In future Prime will develop communication methods between itself and its employees and draw up much tighter contracts in order to make clear what is expected from all those involved . I have since been asked why Prime did not fully embrace its new employer status and test ideas further by sacking employees in order to take 'Parttime' to its logical conclusion as work could always be outsourced to India far more cheaply.

References Bauman, Z. (2005) Work, Consumerism and the New Poor. OUP, Berkshire, England. p6.

Edge!!, S. (2006) The Sociology of Work, Continuity and Change in Paid and Unpaid Work, SAGE Publications Ltd . London.

Ehrenreich, B. (2002) Nickel and Dimed, Undercover in Low Wage USA. Granta Publications , London .

Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish, The Birth of the Prison. Penguin Books Ltd. London.

Mir, A. (2003) Corporate Mentality. Lucas and Sternberg, NY. Molesworth , H. (2003) The Baltimore Museum of Art. Work Ethic. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Press, PA. p71. www.undercoverartists.org accessed on 26'h September 2006.

(1) Taken from email dialogue with Neil Cummings of 14'h December 2006.

31

Many thanks to: The artists Ellie Harrison, Elizabeth Kearney and Joanna Spitzner for all their hard work and ongoing commitment during a difficult and challenging project.

The writers Stephen Edgell and Kymberly Ward for their insightful essays.

Neil Cummings for providing invaluable consultation on the project which was supported by the Networking Artists' Networks Initiative (NAN) and a-n The Artist Information Company.

Andreas Williams for his patience and hard work on the publication .

Hilary Thorn for her endless support and advice.

Images Front Cover Image: Joanna Spitzner Liz Bootsale images: Joanna Spitzner.

All other Images by Andreas Williams.

Published by Prime 2007.

ISBN 978-0-9555047-0-9 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation , reprinting , re-use of illustrations, recitation , broadcasting , reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data bases. For any kind of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained. Contact the editor at ste_renshaw78@hotmail.com

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