Busywork Demo NightBusywork Demo Night

Busywork is a project by artist Sjef van Beers that explores the relations between (domestic) labour, (automation) technology and the supermarket through the medium of the self-scanner. Research has shown that despite the introduction of time-saving domestic appliances, the average time spent on housework has remained constant throughout the 20th century. Around the same time as these devices were reshaping the home and domestic work, the supermarket started to pop up and also played a role. In the words of Albert Heijn Jr. the company "wanted to lead the way for our customers along the path of growing prosperity that the Netherlands had embarked upon." With more and more labour being automated, how do we want to organise our lives? And what role has the supermarket played in shaping our daily lives and living habits?

The event will start with a performance lecture at the Nieuwe Instituut's –1 Digital Lab. After that you can try out an interactive demo. We’ll go to a nearby supermarket, where you will play a game on a self-scanner running custom software—a point-and-scan adventure, if you will. Both the lecture and demo are works in progress and this event is intended to gain knowledge and feedback on how to develop them further. After the demo we return to –1 Digital Lab for a debrief.