"In the beginning there was a lot of discussion between the residents. Some were resistant, but through several months of communication and negotiation, they finally agreed to the idea of one week without work. One of the biggest and most interesting hurdles was the fact that the people had a particularly strong Protestant work ethic. To be not working, but also not on vacation, inspired a lot of guilt in them. This follows from the rationalisation that free time amounts to vacation, which is intrinsically bound to work time. You earn free time because you have put in work time. This is what i call the colonization of everyday life, which happens through the organization of time and its use, which is key to understanding the potential for public interventions."
- Manray Hsu, from "Public Interventions" Curating Now 04, published by the California College of the Arts in 2004
Posted by delpesco at September 7, 2004 03:44 PM