Precariat * Entreprecariat * Projectariat * Cybertariat * Cognitariat * Affectariat

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, April 12, 2024

From March 15 to 18, 2024, I was in Pirot (Serbia) to contribute to a seminar about international artist cooperatives organized by ULUS, the Serbian Association of Visual Artists. I was invited to run the diagnostics of precarity among art workers, as a common base understanding that can inform the process of establishing an international [...]

Six Theses towards the Liberation of Arts Philanthropy

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, April 10, 2024

Philanthropy is on the rise in the Dutch visual arts. Fat cash prizes, big-name exhibitions, large-scale renovations, spectacular public artworks, and big scandals are changing the public display of art and undermining the democratic governance of art institutions. While some have critiqued the patron's rise to power, the majority of the art world remains silent, [...]

Recensie: Justin O’Connor – ‘Reset: Een nieuw begin voor kunst en cultuur’

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, May 30, 2023

Het socialistische tijdschrift Jacobin heeft sinds januari 2023 eindelijk een Nederlandse versie. In een van de eerste artikelen op het ‘platform voor linkse ideeënstrijd’ maakt Teun Dominicus de stand van zaken op van linkse uitgeverijen in Nederland. Zoals bekend is serieus links gedachtengoed in uitgeversland dun gezaaid, maar Dominicus vindt een paar mooie lichtpuntjes. Naast [...]

Making & Breaking III: Communal Luxury, edited by Sebastian Olma & Justin O’Connor

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, May 9, 2023

This issue of Making and Breaking sets out to re-imagine culture beyond individualised consumerism and personal preferences indexed to the ability to pay. Kirsten Ross recovered the idea of Communal Luxury from the shattered remains of the Paris Commune. It evoked not just collective consumption (of services or infrastructures) but the possibility of a social fabric charged with [...]

STRP Scenario #21: Decentralised Collaborative Futures

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, April 14, 2023

April 14, 2023 @ 10:30 am - 1:00 pm - Blockchains, NFTs, tokens, crypto, and DAOs; how can Web3 facilitate decentralised ownership and communities? With Sarah Friend, lizvlx & Michelle Kasprzak, Penny Rafferty, Will Rowe, moderated by Sepp Eckenhaussen. In this STRP Scenario, STRP and co-creator Foundation We Are examine the shift from Web2 to Web3, from open sharing to blockchain-based forms of (digital) ownership. [...]

Museum Directors Critique Climate Activists Instead of Climate Crimes

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, December 7, 2022

‘Death and life’ is the apt name of the Gustav Klimt painting, located in Vienna, onto which climate activists splashed a pot of fake oil. Dutch media paid no attention to it, with the exception of Het Parool. Although the issue climate activists are calling attention to is still one of life and death, the [...]

Video: Dromen van post-precariteit

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, August 29, 2022

De cultuursector van de toekomst, hoe zou die eruit kunnen zien? De urgenties zijn overduidelijk: sociale onveiligheid, teruglopende bezoekersaantallen en een slecht functionerende arbeidsmarkt. Op 21 juni 2022 gingen we met kunstenaars, ontwerpers, onderzoekers en docenten in gesprek over het kunstonderwijs en de kracht van de verbeelding om mogelijke scenario’s te verkennen. Kijk het programma [...]

Out Now: Post-Precarity Zine, 2nd Edition

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, May 24, 2022

In December 2021, we published the Post-Precarity Zine, a toolbox for beginning artists. Due to high demand, we have decided to print a second edition. Free copies are available once again here. Times have changed. The art world and the creative economy are no longer the ones we used to know. The digital economy, the [...]

Below the Market: On the Artist Pension Trust and the Future of Self-Organized Redistribution

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, April 29, 2022

Artists and other cultural workers have always tried to create stable, long-term collective income systems. In 2004, an American tech entrepreneur launched one of the most ambitious redistribution schemes to date, the Artist Pension Trust (APT). The idea was to give artists a nearly guaranteed, stable pension—a luxury highly uncommon among the professional group. Practically, [...]

Call for Proposals – Our Creative Reset Conference

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, March 22, 2022

What lies beyond the ruins of the creative industries ideology? Can we imagine the end of precarity? What is the future of work in the cultural sector? During the Our Creative Reset Conference, experts and (beginning) cultural workers explore how to take agency over their own education, collective organization, and income. The Institute of Network [...]