Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 1

Art as the new economic model in the post labour society

or How art teach us how to detach value of our labour from capital
Isidora Todorovi
Academy of arts, Novi Sad
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 2

Abstract

Advances in technology are forcing us to change the way we think of labour and production,
income and free time. Automatisation is increasingly divorcing labour/production from the human
workforce. The production is decentralized and nonlinear with parallel breakthroughs in fields such as
artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing,
nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing. Where one
theory is putting forward the universal basic income as a way to deal with declining job opportunities
in this emerging new age of work - bots and aifacturing one way of adapting to emerging new
socio/economic landscape is to reform what we think the relations work/production/capital/free time
are. This paper deconstructs what work is in the age of robots that are emergent workforce, what is free
time in the age of basic income and how art can help this paradigm shift in society. This paper is based
on thought experiment of automatization, ai and the downfall of classical economical concepts, the
vacuum of free time it creates, and the possibility of it being filled with creative work, play, and art.

Keywords: labour, profit, free time, AI, precarious worker, art, homo ludens
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 3

The evolution of how we think of labor/work in age of robots

The evolution of the social theory of labor is an amalgam of postmodern constructions of

economic theory, labor theory, and social rights theory. Debating labor/production /work in Post-
Fordist society goes from work as networked collaboration (Castells, 1996), work as power relations
conflict within the immaterial labor concept (Negri, 2006) to work as precarious labour rights
construction ( Tsianos and Papadopoulos, 2006). What is inherently visible, but not always stated, is
that work shaped human evolution. This sentiment can be best described by the latin proverb: "Homo
faber suae quisque fortunae (Every man is the artifex of his destiny).1 In debating
labor/production/work we can conclude that to work is to have an inherently human experience. The
question that comes to mind is: What happens when we take work from the equation? Can we survive
as a society if not obligated to work?

According to a study by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, forty-seven percent of jobs are
at risk of being automated in the next two decades. Inspired by Keynes's prediction of widespread
technological unemployment "Due to our discovery of means of economizing the use of labour
outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labour" (Keynes, 1933), Frey and Osborne
formulate a model of predicting economic behavior based on technological expansion. In their work
that analyses history of work/automatisation paradigm from theoretical perspective (driven by
economic models and history) they conclude : "Algorithms for big data are now rapidly entering
domains reliant upon pattern recognition and can readily substitute for labour in a wide range of non-
routine cognitive tasks (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2011; MGI, 2013). In addition, advanced robots are
gaining enhanced senses and dexterity, allowing them to perform a broader scope of manual tasks (IFR,
2012b; Robotics-VO, 2013; MGI, 2013). This is likely to change the nature of work across industries

1 This quotation refers to the latin book "Sententi written by Appius Claudius Caecuss .
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 4

and occupations. 2 In layman's terms robots are getting smarter and more autonomous, they are not
only performing menial production/assembly line tasks those that entered us in the age of Post- Fordist
society, but also tasks associated with complex skillset of a, for example, doctor3.

The question now is not how is robotic workforce taking over but when, and what happens to
humans then? Economists Jeffrey Sachs and Laurence Kotlikoff ask us: "What if machines are getting
so smart (...) that they no longer need unskilled labor to operate?". In their work "Smart machines and
long-term misery", they argue not only that automatization is inevitable but that it will shape the human
condition trough its expansion immensely: "Are smarter machines our children's friends? Or can they
bring about a transfer from our relatively unskilled children to ourselves that leaves our children and,
indeed, all our descendants worse off? (...) Smart machines substitute directly for young unskilled
labor but complement older skilled labor. The depression in the wages of the young then limits their
ability to save and invest in their own skill acquisition and physical capital. This, in turn, means the
next generation of young, initially unskilled workers, encounter an economy with less human and
physical capital, which further drives down their wages. " 4 As a solution to this problem researchers
and economists are proposing the Universal basic income model. Universal basic income is a method
of sustaining the society divorced from production (as survival means) by giving a monthly allowance
to every one of its citizens. There are debates about the methodology of UBI but the idea is that as the
companies exchange workers for robots some part of the profit can be redistributed to every citizen.
Some of the experiments have already happened (Alaska, Canada, Brasil)5 more or less successfully,
but we have not jet reached the paradigm shift where there are more robot workers than humans, which
is inevitable (as concluded by Frey and Osborne). It this context we need to think about the next
generation of people living in the world of AI automatisation and universal income reality and what
their social dynamism will look like.

2 Frey, C.B., and Osborne, M.A., (2013).THE FUTURE OF EMPLOYMENT: HOW SUSCEPTIBLE ARE JOBS TO
COMPUTERISATION? Retrieved from:
from:http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf
3 Ai can now more effectively diagnose skin cancer than doctors, more information can be found in this article:
http://news.stanford.edu/2017/01/25/artificial-intelligence-used-identify-skin-cancer/
4 Sachs, Jeffrey D., Kotlikoff, Laurence J. (2012). SMART MACHINES AND LONG-TERM MISERY, Massachusetts
Avenue Cambridge.
5 More on this programs can be seen at this address:
https://futurism.com/images/universal-basic-income-ubi-pilot-programs-around-the-world/
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 5

Precarity without labour

In defining the nature of human impact a term Anthropocene is suggested. Anthropocene (in ints
premise) states - human activity is the driving force of evolution (environmental, physical,
technological), but it is also contributing to technological advances predicted to be unbound by humans
in near future. Put it in post-humanist terms - technology is starting to evolve beyond the rules that we
apply to it, it is becoming autonomous from humans. Some are already calling it the fourth industrial
revolution:"The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The
Second used electric power to create a mass production. The Third used electronics and information
technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the
digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a
fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres."6

In the introduction to "War in the Age of Intelligent Machines" Manuel De Landa imagines a future
robot historians view of the human history of conflict. As some of the post-humanists do (De Landa in
particular) we can imagine an evolution that goes beyond anthropocentric perspective. What the social
theories of the 21st century are still obscuring is that technological determinism of our time 7 can shape
future of humanity beyond humans. Economically and pragmatically the solution can be universal basic
income as proposed by a myriad of social theorists, economists and politicians alike. 8 The crucial
question becomes: Can we divorce labour from income, work from money, productivity from the
human driven economy?
As the older social theory models emphasize precarity as the general theme of labour relations where
individual rights of workers are measures of their liberties, rights and needs 9 while talking about the

6 Schwab, K., (2016.), The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond
This article can be found at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-
means-and-how-to-respond/
7 Evident in everyday even to layman trough terms ai, autonomous cars, Watson etc.
8 To read more about proposals for Universal basic income visit these pages:
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-31/french-socialist-vision-promises-money-for-all-funded-by-
robots
https://futurism.com/images/universal-basic-income-ubi-pilot-programs-around-the-world/
9 In text by Angela Mitropoulos Precari-Us? the author analyses evolution of workers right for standardised work
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 6

collective right to bargain in the age of immaterial work Tsianos, Papadopoulos conclude that
precarity of the immaterial worker is different from standard labourer 10 introducing basic income as the
unconditional protection from the precarity of living labour. This proposal can also apply to precarity
of 22nd-century worker that doesn't produce at all. But while a 21st century's worker is concerned
about living wages, work hours and job conditions, 22nd-century workers precarity becomes
disassociated with the lack of financial needs for sustainable living (if we introduce the notion of basic
income); his precarity is associated with unbounded work from capital, production from classical
economic concepts. As the technological prophet 11 Elon Musk has stated recently:"There will be fewer
and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better. (...) I think some kind of universal basic income is going to
be necessary. (...) The much harder challenge is, how are people going to have meaning? A lot of
people derive their meaning from their employment. So if there's no need for your labor, what's your
meaning? Do you feel useless? That's a much harder problem to deal with." 12

We need to unbound labour from capital and art can help us do it!

The social paradigm shift to a world of no more work for humans will probably happen without our
potential to control it. As histories cyclical tragedies become farces and we enter the age of neoluditte
worker, this paradigm shift will perhaps force us to rethink our governing social/economic structures.
We will perhaps rethink how we measure value, why the value of our work is measured by money and
can value of our labour survive without money attributed to it? In Marxist theoretical construction
equating money with value was a means to liberate the worker, a practice that was corrupted in the

hours as initially a fight that goes from fighting for free time to fighting for more work as the capitalistic society
detaches them from income and attaches value to monetary only: "Whereas Fordism sought the brains of workers from
their bodies so as to assign thought, knowledge, planning and control to management, post-Fordist capitalism might, by
contrast, be characterised in Foucault's terms as the imprisonment of the body by the soul." More on this at this
address: http://eipcp.net/transversal/0704/mitropoulos/en
10 In example how labour rights have changed in the era of immaterial labour the authors conclude." Today the basic
income for precarious workers is what the eight-hour day was for the working class before the turn of the previous century. It
was just the annunciation of fear." More can be researched at this address: Papadopoulos, D., & Tsianos, V. (2006)
Precarity: A Savage Journey to the Heart of Embodied Capitalism referenced at
http://eipcp.net/transversal/1106/tsianospapadopoulos/en
11 As in several online forums is often equated to 21st-century deity by technological determinists.
12 What Musk ignores is this statement is that he's own creativity and "outside the box" thinking formulated his success
and he's denying this methodology it to everybody else. His statement can be found at his address:
https://news.fastcompany.com/tag/universal-basic-income
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 7

capitalist society where money became its own value. In post labour, society money will be detached
from production, as production/labour will be associated with the robotic or nonhuman workforce. If
we become a more just society13 via Universal-basic-income, we can as well become a very bored or
even depressed one. A society that has nothing to do...

In that context how art measures value can become the new norm for post labour society. If we can
think of Homo Ludens a social construct of men that plays and creates instead of Homo Faber man
that makes, we can deduce work from economic capital - means to survive, and attribute it to symbolic
capital, the playfulness of creation - means to thrive. In his seminal work "Homo Ludens" Huizinga
offers not just another social theory about the history of social interactions, he also offers a different
way of looking at a society. While playing an playfulness have been deemed unimportant historically
(emphasizing work, production and profit accumulation as a measure of social importance) Huizinga
gives these concepts evolutionary and social meaning. Art (as an undoubtedly creative process)14 can
prepare us for new social paradigm shift via its value systems and help us see the methodology of
detaching value of our work/labour from monetary one. As art history shows us, art isn't unison in how
it measures value, its value systems are complex, contradictory broadly impactful, or small personal
victories and therapies. A true postmodern value measurement tool for post labour society. On social
function of art Trotsky says: "The quarrels about pure art and about art with a tendency took place
between the liberals and the populists. They do not become us. Materialistic dialectics are above this;
from the point of view of an objective historical process, art is always a social servant and historically
utilitarian." 15 In this concept wouldn't arts historical utilitarianism be to help a transitioning society one
that isn't starving for food but for value? Art has been measuring its value parallel to capitalist market
for a very long time. If we ignore the fame/money/art market of the 21st-century western capitalist
society paradigm art has always derived its value elsewhere. Even the capital driven art market isn't
immune to symbolic value (political, communicational even emotional). For Leonardo Da Vinci its
value was to create something complex, utilitarian, grandiose (his patrons money was only meant to it);

13 I have not excluded the notion that we became more unjust society as the capital accumulates even more to the top, but
that is another thought experiment.
14 In the context of this study I propose a more general concept of creativity which incorporates playfulness and art alike,
but I'm putting the accent on art as a field I am most familiar with.

15 Trotsky, L.,(1923.), The Social Roots and the Social Function of Literature, Retrieved
from:.https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1923/art/tia23b.htm
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 8

for Yves Klein its value was to create something symbolically transformative (his job as judo instructor
was means to make money to sustain his art); for artists of today thriving on platforms like "Patreon" or
"Kickstarter" art is as much a communication tool for online communities as well as way to create and
sustain themselves.

So how do we achieve this?

Change the economic/cultural model

The old capital based market driven models are unsustainable as current global social unrests
show us. So why is it so hard to abandon them? In changing the economic model we are changing
cultural one as well. But what 20th and 21st-century theoretical concepts have not predicted the
inevitable economic paradigm shift where a human worker is replaced by robot worker. A presumption
that this economic evolution will transform society even if a cultural theory doesn't catch up to it is
evident. In debating the precariousness, the immaterial, the neoliberal we must examine the possibility
of a paradigm shift and adapt out theoretical mechanisms to it. Historically tectonic shifts in society
attributed to automatisation/mechanization have been accompanied by social unrest because of the
inability of society to catch up to its progress. But perhaps in the age of virtual global networked
intellect, we can collaboratively imagine another society derived from economic history and fuelled by
the social theory that formulates it.

Change the education model

Knowledge is more available than ever. A new kind of education is emerging - it is less
formal, less related to a profession and more related to skill set and creative applying of cumulated vast
data-driven knowledge. We are seeing an increase of skilled individuals whose college chosen
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 9

profession isn't their vocation, whose re-education was informal but whose accomplishments are many.
Reimagined schools need to take into account all the above-mentioned realities and to reform. We need
to focus on skills, not professions (if AI is capable of diagnosing the conditions, and nanobots or nano
gels are there to repair it what does the "new doctor " need to know; on the other hand, if an AI is
making pop songs/symphonies or conceptual artworks what is the role of the "new artist"?)on creativity
and playfulness instead of knowledge regurgitation, on decentralisation and personalization. A
paradigm shift in society dictates a need of one in education as well. Technology is allowing us to
decentralize, personalize, individualize education, and produce complex objects. Is doing this via the
collective brain of the Internet (the new library of Alexandria), via unique algorithms (that can,
program, deduce, search and produce), via 3d printers and the Internet of things. The educators of
tomorrow should teach us how to understand the technology and creatively apply it to solve problems
existing or emerging. We need a society of creators who can manipulate the vast existing big data on
the Internet, and in the Internet of things into new solutions to old problems. We need an education that
can teach people to crowdfund and to data mine the solutions to individual problems, to understand and
use these tools in unconventional ways. In short, education should let people use vast existing resources
to enable people to create.16

Let society learn from how we value art

Art can be political tool (Groys,2008.) socio/communicational tool (Tolstoy,1897.) but it is

inherently intrinsic to humans looking for meaning beyond God (Nietzsche,1872.). The value of art is
not measurable by simple quantitative monetary value, it is social and symbolic and its value doesn't
decrease by its quantitative but qualitative impact. It can be impactful for millions (via distribution or
message) or impactful for the "one member of the audience that gets it" and it still maintains its
meaning, value, and purpose. We must detach value from the capital and attribute it to creation, unique
solutions playfulness, fabrication, a system that is familiar with DIY communities and intellectuals,
artist alike but a system that needs a way to find its common ground in a changing society.

16 The idea of reforming education that is focused more on creativity, "outside the box" and lateral thinking is the main
focus of the work of Ken Robinson. More about this at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 10

Conclusion

This work analyzes several emerging problems:

Manufacturing labor is being automatized, highly skilled jobs across the spectrum are entering
the AI age.

We are heading to post profession future increasingly abundant resources are making it possible
to be more than one profession more than one thing, and post labour society where robots work
and produce capital.

The new shifting cultural paradigm of robots producing labour/capital needs new economic
solutions - basic income is suggested by many as the new societal norm. Formal education,
economy, and theory have to catch up with these realities and offer solutions to this new
realities.

If the utopistic vacuum of free time governed by money producing robots and basic income happens
the vacuum of free time can be filled with art, creativity and lateral solutions to emerging problems.
 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 11

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 Art as the new economic model in the post labour society 12

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