“They are working and inventing because they like it! Economics has become a spiritual thing. I must admit it frightens me a bit; they don’t seem to see the difference between working, and not working. It’s all become a part of one’s life.”
The above quote, taken from David Byrne’s 1986 mockumentary art opus True Stories, has always had a particular resonance for me. It seemed revelatory (if a bit absurd) at the time when the late, great Spalding Gray first delivered it, a sentiment that time has vindicated. The boundaries between work and play continue to blur. Imaginative gamers, as well as less ethical copycats, found ways to monetize the time they spent on MMORPGs like Star Wars: Galaxies or World of Warcraft, just as other creatives now generate revenue through time spent on Facebook or other social media sites.
Stephanie Rothenburg takes this strange synthesis a step further, and in doing so perhaps anticipates its next iteration. In “Best Practices in Banana Time,” she created a mixed reality talk show that featured people who held the same job in actuality and in Second Life. Spanning both the virtual and real worlds, these people, who include a doctor, professional pianist, and a minister, discuss the challenges that leading these dual lives present.
It’s her other, older project that should garner more interest, however. “Portraits: The New Working Class” is a simple gallery of images, complete with biographies, of people who, like those in “Best Practices,” lead dual lives in the real world and in Second Life. Their occupations range from call center operators to architect in the real world to personal escort and custom creator of avatar skins in the virtual and the wages they earn run from a few thousand dollars to a cool seventy-five grand. These alter egos, who in some cases are drastically different than their “real world” personas, are earning them enough that their full-time, real world job might actually qualify more as supplementary income.
These pieces raise an interesting question. Has this merger of work and play reached its logical conclusion, or will we see it future iterations of it as well?
Hi Steven,
Thanks for brining up Spalding Gray – I haven’t thought about him in a long time, and you’re right – his work is just as pointed today as it was twenty (and more) years ago. I guess there has always been a discussion around threading of two worlds – work and personal life, and with Stephanie’s example, real vs virtual. It makes me wonder if there ever was a time in human history that there was a clear divide/distinction between work/personal or real/virtual (which virtual could mean daydreaming)?
Curious, what does MMORPG mean?
And to answer your last question, I never like to think that we, as a culture, has reached the end. I don’t think that the merger between work and play has reached its final merger. I have no idea what’s next so I will leave it up to our digital evolution or perhaps de-evolution. What will our digital future look like in 35 years?
Jamie,
I thought about your first question as well. Although the lines between the two always have been blurred somewhat (e.g., workers meeting socially outside of the workspace), I think we are seeing that demarcation eroded even further as the work space infiltrates the personal via recent developments like mobile technology, telecommuting, and, ultimately, the Internet. That’s what makes Rothenburg’s work so fascinating: she details the intersection between these two worlds by identifying people who leave their traditional work environment and head to an arena most would designate as social/private, where they either duplicate their real-world vocations or perform some other profitable function. In doing so she forces the viewer to genuinely consider the question: which space has, or should have, primacy?
MMORPGs (which, mea culpa, means massively multiplayer online roleplaying games) have also contributed their fair share to complicating this issue, though the bulk of their impact lies in the social sphere. In games like World of Warcraft, players date and get married to other players, hold funerals online for players who have died in real life, or relocate thousands of miles to be physically closer to their online community. According to IBM’s Vice President of Innovation, they also learn real world skills in the process. It’s an interesting case of life imitating fantasy.
As to what this will all look like in 35 years, I’m with you. I haven’t the faintest clue. Personally, however, I’m all for distinctions, no matter how faint. Knowing we’ve worked hard will allow us to enjoy those moments of free time all the more, regardless how fleeting they will be.
Wow! This clip is too eerily prescient. I saw the movie, and I do not even remember this scene. Weird how some ideas remain invisible because we cannot see or hear them even when they are in front of us emerging and entering the stage.
How did you think of this scene for this post? It’s haunting…
It came to me practically unbidden as I watched Rothenberg’s Second Life projects and the way in which they blur that line between work and play. I haven’t seen True Stories in at least fifteen years (even though I own it), but from the very first time I saw it that scene always stuck with me as The Moment
(Whoops, hit submit by accident)
It came to me practically unbidden as I watched Rothenberg’s Second Life projects and the way in which they blur that line between work and play. I haven’t seen True Stories in at least fifteen years (even though I own it), but from the very first time I saw it that scene always stuck with me as “The Moment” in that film. If you’re interested in more David Byrne’s weird prophecies, give a listen to “In the Future” from his Music From the Knee Plays. It’s bizarre and often contradictory, but many of his statements are spot on.