Mediations on Digital Labor

An exhibition at Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, May 2-July 12, 2015

Participants can sign up to work in the Grand Central Art Center Project Room. In exchange for a half hour of work (worth $4.5 in California at the time of writing, not including taxes), participants will receive one of the USB drives hanging from the wall.

The drives (valued at more than $5 each) contain one Om video created by a Mechanical Turk worker (each video is valued at $.75).

Working participants will listen to a 30-minute loop of om chants created by Mechanical Turk workers while redrawing the sentences on the floor of the Project Room in chalk. The letter-forms of alternating responses oscillate between shaded-in block letters to a hand-written, cursive style. Review the videos and images on this site and the provided spreadsheet with official text to observe how the gallery floor appeared before the opening of the exhibit. When redrawing the letters, participants should attempt to recreate the lettering that was first drawn on the floor by the artist, the mediator of digital and physical labor.

USB drives will remain on the wall for the duration of the exhibition. Processing time is required before participants receive their earnings.