The Work of Art

Work gets a bad rap. Chantal Pontibrand writes that in Marcusian terms, “work is seen as a shrinkage of human freedom by a coercive activity steered by elusive forces” (128) Work is something we “have”—aka are forced or compelled—to do. As a noun, work operates in other negating phrases like “I can’t wait to get out of work” (aka work-as-place-of-dull-drudgery). It refers to the work that one does (process) and the work that one completes (product). If we are to look at work in this restrictive sense—as a “coercive activity” that is “steered by elusive forces”—then yes, work might shrink “human freedom.” However, what if work is not “steered by elusive forces” but, rather, by the individual doing that work out of supposed “free will” choice? In that case, human freedom would not “shrink”; would freedom then grow, expand, as a result of work that is self-coerced? To “coerce” is to “persuade (an unwilling person) to do something by using force or threats.” Even if it is not an “elusive force” but rather one’s own self that is “coercing” one to work—then it is still a process/product that restricts freedom.

This is a disempowering way of looking at things. I have “worked” in environments in which I felt coerced into working but in reality, the “elusive forces” were elusive because they were illusory inhibitions. I thought I did not have a choice, so therefore I felt that I did not have a choice and operated accordingly, shrinking my own freedom. Of course, there are always “elusive forces” that we can control—i.e., I can decide whether to drive into work or call in (short term) or quit (long term). There are consequences that we do not control—i.e., if I quit work, I will make less money and need to find another way to pay the mortgage. If I want to shrink my freedom, then, I can shrink my perception of the available choices—which I did for a long time.

Now that I have expanded my perception and can sense more choices available, I am still working for a purpose but it is a purpose of my choosing within the options available to me. If I understand or at least comprehend or accept the “elusive forces” that I am dealing with, I can still choose to participate in what is known as work, and in that way of looking at it, I am not coerced and my freedom is not limited. But so what if it was?

If I do not work in some way, I feel it—in the form of meaninglessness, purposelessness. Maybe this is the doing of the elusive force, but if so, who cares; it feels like shit if I am not working on something. I do not think that this is solely because I am a product of this country and its history of Puritanism and capitalism. Yes, I am one of “many cogs of what is called ‘liberal capitalism,’ the latest version of which is ‘cognitive capitalism’” doing my part in “making the machine run” (128)—whatever that “machine” might be. My work as a teacher, writer, and PhD student is much more art- than progress-driven than it was before, when I was a technical writer and employed by the U.S. military. I wake up every day excited to do it, rather than contemplating calling in, yet I still call it work.

“To understand why art is closely linked with work” (125) it helps to think about work not only as “activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result; mental or physical activity as a means of earning income; employment; the place where one is employed; the period of time one spends in paid employment; a task or tasks to be undertaken; something a person or thing has to do” but also as (in the noun/product sense) “something done or made; a literary or musical composition or other piece of fine art” and (in the verb/process sense) to “be employed in a specified occupation or field; to cause; to have the desired result or effect; to achieve; to exert influence; to bring (a material or mixture) to a desired shape or consistency by hammering, kneading, or some other method (synonyms: knead, squeeze, form, sape, fashion, mold); to produce articles or pictures using (a particular material or medium) to produce (an article or design) using a specified material.” Art is closely linked with work because our language makes no distinction between the two. Only by overlooking the second, more empowering, set of definitions of work can “work is seen as a shrinkage of human freedom by a coercive activity steered by elusive forces” (128).

While working in a positive, empowering, spirit of choice, freedom can see expanded: as Pontibrand puts it, “time is also multiplied, stretched, contracted” (126) and the “medium is a place a transit” (126)—transit denoting movement and thereby freedom at least in the sense of non-stuckness. Further, “artworks are at once material and immaterial. Art is … a reflective, reflecting, thoughtful activity. Doing art is work of the mind, over and above the activity of making art, the ‘work’ itself” (125). The process of working and thereby producing works/products is a chance for one to delve into “reflecting, thoughtful activity”—movement, transit. This is why work does not need to be demonized, but rather, understood in an empowering way, if at all possible. For it is only in working that playing can surface. As Pontibrand puts it:

“Artwork—or the relation of art to work and vice versa—is oriented toward the possible world … By delving into the interstices of things, by mixing the data of reality, and by making work a place of experience and experimentation, innovative artistic practices help us to imagine special worlds within the real world, unsuspected worlds that invite us to discover spaces of ease … The static world of work regains movement and real ‘flexibility.’” (138).

If one type of work, artwork, allows “delving into the interstices,” then this is a freeing, not negating, activity. A beautiful use of the word “interstice” (meaning “an intervening space, especially a very small one”) rather appropriately sounds like a description of a piece of art: “sunshine filtered through the interstices of the arching trees.”

Works Cited

Pontibrand, Chantal. “Beyond Work.” The Contemporary, the Common: Art in a Globalizing World. Sternberg Press, 2013.