Has Technology Altered The Balance of Power In The Workplace?
Martin C Kaminer (iguana@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
16 May 1995 15:00:36 GMT
I am soliciting stories, observations and theories that will be incorporated
into an upcoming interactive interactive installation to be exhibited at a
gallery in New York this summer. The piece is the latest in a series that
examines issues of technology, power and gender in office environments. It
will include a voice mail system that incorporates stories about people's
experiences garnered from interviews as well as from cultural theorists.
The material collected will also be made available via the WWW. I would
be very grateful if anyone with experiences, anecdotes or opinions in
the following areas would see fit to contribute them.
* New communications technologies and their impact on interpersonal
relations in the workplace. Has your job been altered/enhanced/
eliminated by new technologies? If so, how and why?
* Gendered technologies. Do new office technologies transform or
reinforce traditional notions of gender and power relations
in the workplace?
* Access to technology. What is the relationship between who uses
technology, who benefits from it, who controls it and who is
controlled by it. How come in my office the lower you are on the
totem pole, the more certain you are to have a computer on your
desk and know how to use it?
* Any good voicemail nightmares or fantasies.
* Any memorable experiences interacting with or working as a
receptionist.
Who's doing this?
Molly Blieden and Martin Kaminer, like most people, have both had a lot
of shit jobs and scary bosses.
Molly Blieden is a conceptual artist working and living in New York
City whose work explores gender and politics in the workplace.
She's done a lot of great installations, mostly in New York, which
she'd be happy to tell you about.
Martin Kaminer lives and doesn't work in Cambridge MA. He recently
completed a study on the sociology of work focusing on the lower
end of the labor market, in particular cultural obstacles faced by
people on public assistance as they go to work in corporate
environments.
Once again, we'd be extremely grateful for any material you could submit. We
are committed to making this material available via the net for those folks
interested in seeing other people's stories, and we'll keep all submitters
posted on the development of the on-line archive.
All flames for spamming graciously accepted.
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