To sun, to leisure: About work environments of the future and (gig) jobs 150 years after Marx’s “Kapital”

For the Year of Science 2018, re:publica welcomes everyone to its topic “We can WORK it out”: Supported by BMBF, we will be exploring work environments of the future.

Throughout the three-day conference, re:publica stages will be populated by, amongst others, human-machine interactions, peak globalization, innovative workplaces and economical reference models, union movements, urban and suburban maker cultures, and the flourishing emancipation of data-leeching platforms.

Not to be missed in this comprehensive examination: the not-so “fantastic world of plastic” and the effect a consumer culture fueled by leisure and wealth, as well as new (work) technologies, has on the environment. We will present employment models that have never been seen before with a focus on law, communication, and sociology. We won’t be intimidated by the future. Instead, we will make joint, interdisciplinary choices about what employment (and the value of the economy) will look like in the future—we can work it out!

re:publica’s multiperspectival stage schedule, artistic interventions, and “sweatshops” will be manned by scientists, artists, and activist—technological change is limitless. If there are geographical limits, we will set them ourselves.

We will show how creatives, network communities, researchers, and re:publica visitors can and should come together to co-determine the debate about the future of work. 

In preparation, here is an extensive program summary, clustered by theme and format—from the symphony of an open plan office (Whackathon) to a conference game for burnt out superhuman executives:

1. Activity: Oracles and windows into the future offer a glimpse of tomorrow’s jobs

Just do it: Visions of Future Work

KIBA: The Artificial Intelligence Employment Agency

2. Artistic Interventions: Using body heat against cold optimization

May 3, 2018, 10:30 am – 11:00 am, stage 5
Access to Bodies: A guideline for post-human computers and body applications
Nadja Buttendorf

May 4, 2018, 11:45 am – 12:15 pm, stage 9
We, the Data Workers: Challenging the future of labour
Manuel Beltrán

May 4, 2018, 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm, stage 4
People as Software Extensions
Sebastian Schmieg

3. Keynotes: Work and Environments of the Future—What the genesis of (technologies of) work can tell us about New Work. And: Coping Mechanisms for the Revolution of Tools and Job Profiles

May 2, 2018, 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm, stage 2
Whose Future? Automation anxiety, ecological apocalypse, and the struggle for the future of labour
Peter Frase

May 2, 2018, 2:45 pm – 3:45 pm, stage 1
Resilient Speculation
Orit Halpern

May 2, 2018, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm, stage 1
Human and Machine—Who programs whom?
Ranga Yogeshwar

May 3, 2018, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm, stage 1
On Monstrosity and Visibility
Morehshin Allahyari

May 3, 2018, 1:35 pm – 2:45 pm, stage 1
Forensic Architecture—Data against devilry
Eyal Weizman

May 4, 2018, 11:15 am – 12:15 pm, stage 1
An Approach to Adversarial Research
Surya Mattu

May 4, 2018, 1:45 pm – 2:15 pm, stage 1
The Gendered Shaping of Workplace Technology
Fiona Krakenbürger

May 4, 2018, 2:15 pm – 2:45 pm, stage 1
Equitable Pioneers for the Digital Economy
Trebor Scholz

 

4. Sweatshops/Meetups: Non-stop toward the future of work: We’ll be taking to stages and busses to initiate beautiful new work environments

May 2, 2018, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm, stage T
Private Vice, Public Virtue: Can you ever do business and be good?

May 3, 2018, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm, makerspace outdoor
“Whack”athon: Co-create a soundtrack of the cubicles ages

May 3, 2018, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm, stage J
The Future of Cities and Villages: Using virtual networks to create work environments for everybody

May 4, 2018, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm, stage T
The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for online platform work

May 4, 2018, 1:45 pm – 2:45 pm stage T
Work Fiction: Creating new working hours in 2030+

Makerspace outdoor:

[Day 1] Digi-Tech-Edu-Art Project for rural areas
May 2, 2018, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

[Day 2] Digi-Tech-Edu-Art Project for rural areas
May 3, 2018, 1:45 pm – 2:45 pm

[Day 3] Digi-Tech-Edu-Art Project for rural areas
May 4, 2018, 1:45 pm – 2:45 pm

 

5. Discussions: Human-human and human-machine interactions

May 2, 2018, 5:15 pm – 6:15 pm, stage 5
When Algorithms are your Boss: Staying human in platform-mediated work

May 3, 2018, 2:15 pm – 2:45 pm, stage 5
Please Do Not Disturb! Algorithms at work.


6. International(s)—Looking beyond

May 2, 2018, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm, stage 5
Youth Skills for the Future of Work(less) on the Global South

May 2, 2018, 12:15 pm – 1:15 pm, stage 2 (curated and presented by BMZ)
Perspectives from Developing Countries—It’s the end of the work as we know it… (and I feel fine!)

May 3, 2018, 11:45 am – 12:15 pm, stage 5, partner: Autodesk
The Future of Work: Will robots and automation destroy or save us?
 

7. Focus Talks: Work-related communication, law, marketing, and sociology

May 3, 2018, 1:45 pm – 2:15 pm, stage 5
Surviving Social Media in the Workplace: A kit

May 3, 2018, 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm, stage 5
Robots Behaving Badly: Legal responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence

May 3, 2018, 3:30 pm – 4:00 pm, stage 5
Beautiful Robots: Selling automation to the public

May 4, 2018, 11:15 am – 11:45 am, stage 9
Core Competence: Bumbling through!