Return to Sender

Exhibition: https://biblio.csusm.edu/content/spring-2018-exhibition

The Context Library Series is pleased to present The Laboring Self, on display March 14- July 1, 2018 in the library gallery. The Laboring Self is an interactive installation that draws parallels between unregulated labor and its effect on workers’ bodies in both the Industrial Revolution and Mechanical Turk workers on Amazon.com’s online job platform. In this exhibit, xtine burrough and Sabrina Starnaman present three works within this larger series: Hired Hands, Weaving Texts: An Untitled Audio Tour, and Illuminated Voices. Each work is an artful invitation for visitors to participate in a conversation about labor and their bodies.

Materials and supplies for Return to Sender Workshop. Students were asked to add on their own stories of labor to cardboard cut-outs of hands.

xtine burrough describing her works and contributions to The Laboring Self.

Critical questions asked by students attending the workshop. These questions were then submitted as a survey to Amazon's online job platform for Mechanical Turk workers to complete and receive payment for. The survey paid each participant $5.00--which is about three times more than what workers are actually paid for within an hour.

How would you respond to these questions? Would you become a Mechanical Turk worker? Be sure to check out more stories from Mechanical Turk workers by visiting The Laboring Self exhibition.