Research output per year
Research output per year
Abstract
(Artwork). Robotics, single channel video, steel, concrete, 16GB USBs, vinyl diagram, contact microphones, generative sound, field recordings.
Workwelt Logistics explores the volatile relationship between neoliberalism, automation technologies and the natural labour systems that they appropriate. The project seeks to amplify the fundamental qualities of swarming (biological and machinic) and showcase how it manifests through material voicings, mechanical agency, and historical legacies within the contemporary e-commerce fulfilment centre workplace. Through using the motif of the industrious ant swarm, robotics, insect field recordings, various AV components, construction materials and media-archaeological aesthetics this site magnifies an archaic labour spectacle that has been revived through artificial and machinic form to extract and embellish its presence and worldliness.
‘Workwelt Logistics’ is a body of work comprising of custom built and programmed robotic arms, video, sculpture, laser etched acrylic, diagrams, insect field recordings, live generative audio components, and a brochure.
It was produced over approximately 3 years in partial fulfilment with a Master of Fine Arts (Research) thesis entitled
“Swarmic Trajectories: Mapping the Symbiosis of Social Insects and Biomimetic Automation at Fulfilment Centre Worksites”.
This is a symbiosis that is fraught with harmonies and hostilities due to the paradoxical politics of swarming. However, if there is common ground between the corporation and the social insect, it lies in the tensions of information/noise, host/parasite, luxury/necessity and difference/repetition that are necessitated by swarming and neoliberalism as frameworks for upwards mobility and growth. Swarming as an action is therefore transient and gives way to tensions that must circulate if the system is to be kept alive.
Exhibition History:
2022: "Workwelt Logistics" - solo exhibition at UWA Cullity Gallery (Boorloo, Australia).
Workwelt Logistics explores the volatile relationship between neoliberalism, automation technologies and the natural labour systems that they appropriate. The project seeks to amplify the fundamental qualities of swarming (biological and machinic) and showcase how it manifests through material voicings, mechanical agency, and historical legacies within the contemporary e-commerce fulfilment centre workplace. Through using the motif of the industrious ant swarm, robotics, insect field recordings, various AV components, construction materials and media-archaeological aesthetics this site magnifies an archaic labour spectacle that has been revived through artificial and machinic form to extract and embellish its presence and worldliness.
‘Workwelt Logistics’ is a body of work comprising of custom built and programmed robotic arms, video, sculpture, laser etched acrylic, diagrams, insect field recordings, live generative audio components, and a brochure.
It was produced over approximately 3 years in partial fulfilment with a Master of Fine Arts (Research) thesis entitled
“Swarmic Trajectories: Mapping the Symbiosis of Social Insects and Biomimetic Automation at Fulfilment Centre Worksites”.
This is a symbiosis that is fraught with harmonies and hostilities due to the paradoxical politics of swarming. However, if there is common ground between the corporation and the social insect, it lies in the tensions of information/noise, host/parasite, luxury/necessity and difference/repetition that are necessitated by swarming and neoliberalism as frameworks for upwards mobility and growth. Swarming as an action is therefore transient and gives way to tensions that must circulate if the system is to be kept alive.
Exhibition History:
2022: "Workwelt Logistics" - solo exhibition at UWA Cullity Gallery (Boorloo, Australia).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2022 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'Workwelt Logistics'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Research output
- 1 Master's Thesis
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Swarmic Trajectories: Mapping the Symbiosis of Social Insects and Biomimetic Automation at Fulfilment Centre Worksites.
Beilby, S., 2023, (Unpublished)Research output: Thesis › Master's Thesis
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