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'After Work Conversations' is a two-part symposium about issues of emancipation and political organization in the context of work within digital capitalism. Artists, workers, activists, and academics (occupations that are not mutually exclusive) are invited to a joint exploration of how digital technology shapes (future and current) conditions of work, as well as possibilities for class solidarity.

Taking place within the framework of the international doctorate programme for artists and designers PhDArts (ACPA, Leiden University and KABK, The Hague) and the Binational Artistic-PhD program (HfK Bremen), the symposium asks if artistic research can contribute tools and concepts that bring together not only practitioners from the arts (culture) and academia, but also a politically engaged and wider public. The working hypothesis is that in this setting, boundaries and hierarchies between different types of knowledges (academic, artistic, activist, and other) can be challenged, blurred, reset and eventually overcome.

The symposium will take place in two parts and in two locations, at the KABK in The Hague on April 20th, 2023, and at HfK in Bremen on May 11th, 2023.

The first day of the symposium will focus on the video games industry, investigating whether video games as an artistic medium have the potential to challenge unfair working practices, mobilize workers and cultivate solidarity. We will thus jointly explore existing conversations between artists working with video games, academics, and grassroots initiatives and, potentially, propose new ones.

On the second day of the symposium, we will ask how a post-work future can be imagined from the various perspectives of the participating guests. The conversation will touch upon the relationships between the real life struggles of workers and artistic/academic imaginations of the future of work, seeking to identify common desires that can lead towards more widespread (class) solidarity.

#1 Play hard, work harder
April 20
10.00–16.00
KABK The Hague

With contributions by Natacha Roussel (Petites Singularités), Haïssam Razouk & Peggy Lecouvey (Solidaires Informatiques)

#2 Post-Work-Imaginaries
May 11
10.00–16.00
HfK Bremen

With contributions by Alina Lupu, Nonni Morisse, Rainer Reising (ver.di), Robin de Greef & Dave Beech

For more information please email info@phdarts.eu
Participation is free of charge

Co-organized by Lídia Pereira and Henrik Nieratschker in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Anke Haarmann and Prof. Dr. Andrea Sick