High-Profile Performance Art in Second Life Subverted by Emergent Community, Force Field Drama, Robert Redford

Indie pioneer in film Bob Redford boggles at indie art pioneer in Second Life

In 2008, I wrote about "Invisible Threads: Sweatshop Jean Factory in Second Life", a mixed reality performance art project featured at the famed Sundance Film Festival. In it, two artists created a textile factory in Second Life, dubbed it Double Happiness Jeans, then invited Residents to roleplay as low wage, poorly-treated employees working on the line, while a foreman in a 19th century top hat oversaw them. At the time, I thought it was clever if overly-obvious satire of post-industrial capitalism in the digital age, somewhat at the expense of Second Life users. (I.E., "Haha you silly losers, willing to work in a virtual sweatshop for less than $1 an hour.") Now a recent talk in Brooklyn by one of the artists, Jeff Crouse, just uploaded by The Story Collider, gives us the rest of the story, and it's fascinating, surprising, and turns out much differently than what Crouse expected.

Set aside 15 minutes and watch below:

In essence, here's what happened:

Because Crouse was paying his SL workers L$200 an hour, which is actually quite a lot relative to Second Life, he got a lot of employees. And because he gave each of his workers a plot of land on his sim, they began building their own homes, and even a community of employees and an employee of the week shrine. Which evolved, of course, into Second Life drama, leading to one of the workers building a force field on her property to keep out a rival. So now for Crouse to keep his art show running, he had settle disputes between his "workers", get them to sign labor contracts, and finally (as Sundance founder and indie art icon Robert Redford was moments from stopping by to check out the show), explain that the whole factory installation was a performance art show, and directly involve them in continuing it. Which led to this realization:

The whole point of the project was that I was supposed to be making these people's lives miserable, to a make point to the audience in the gallery. This was supposed to be about sweatshop labor. What I realized at that point is that the workers were actually the audience. Out of anyone, they were the ones that were taking the most out of the project. [emph. mine]

Because after all, while Crouse was busy sweating in Sundance trying to keep this project running to impress Redford and other high art mavens (who were mostly confounded), his collaborators were probably sitting in the comfort of their homes and neighborhood coffee shops, idly clicking virtual factory buttons while chatting with their online friends. Which makes you wonder who really got exploited in the end.

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

Amazing story. Absolutely was worth the watch.

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

Can you say "Hawthorne Effect"? Too bad they didn't get the politically correct result they wanted.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

When workers feel invested in an enterprise, you don't need a Scrooge standing over their shoulder with a bullwhip to exploit them; they will happily exploit themselves for the success of the venture.

Tech workers are very familiar with this dynamic.

[Scarp Godenot]

Well... aren't they all just Soooooo superior to all the clueless little Second Life idiots.

I loathe that type of condescending attitude. The clueless ones are those hilariously laughing in the audience.

The attitude of the artist began as one of condescention and of course that became the attitude of the RL audience.

Bottom line. In the minds of all those in the video, virtual worlds are just a freaking joke. A playground for the aimless and foolish

This gets everyone exactly nowhere.

The artist and his audience get to feel infinitely superior to the rubes of second life and that is the end of it.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

I'm with Scarp on this one. What might have been an interesting satirical commentary on RL sweatshops, or economics in SL, or have provided some insights into online community, becomes instead a smarmy, patronizing, and "amusing" little bit of entertainment for those who get their jollies by laughing condescendingly at others. And don't blame the tittering audience either: this presentation was designed to elicit the reactions it did.

So what did we actually learn from this? Firstly, that it is possible to create positive communities in virtual worlds, however much Crouse might devalue them after the fact with his derision. But that's hardly a revelation for anyone who has spent any real time in SL.

And secondly, that although Crouse may or may not have been exploiting his "workers" economically, he sure as hell was doing so by turning them into a sort of digital freak show.

Utterly distasteful and obnoxious.

[Hamlet Au]

"The artist and his audience get to feel infinitely superior to the rubes of second life"

Did you watch the end? I got the impression he felt less condescending as it wound down, especially as he came to rely on them.

It's a fine line talking about SL with non-users without provoking their condescension. I usually start by citing user demographics, point out how diverse the user base is by pointing out specific examples (artists, scientists, etc.) and also mention that there's a lot of disabled people who depend on this as their main channel to the outside world. In my experience that lays out a broader context. And THEN you can point out some of the wacky things some of the weirder users do.