On Work: Universal Basic Income etc

To discuss the future of the economy, journalist Helen Lewis chairs an Intelligence Squared panel featuring Stella Creasy MP, architect Jack Self, academic Nick Srnicek and barrister and author Jamie Susskind. Elsewhere, novelist and essayist Rana Dasgupta asks, “how will political participation look when technology brings about the collapse of capitalism?” Oh, and we get Karl Marx to rap for us. The conversations and performances shared in this episode were recorded at the Serpentine’s Work Marathon on 22 September 2018.

The 2018 Work Marathon saw artists, sociologists, anthropologists, writers, musicians, architects, scientists and philosophers address cultural, political, physical and environmental debates on the complex and timely question of work, labour, automation and leisure.

Building on the 2017’s GUEST, GHOST, HOST: MACHINE! Marathon, which focused on artificial consciousness and machine learning, the 2018 Work Marathon explores issues including: technological developments leading to automation and its impact on the labour market; the political urgencies of coerced and invisible labour; and the role of non-human agents, including artificial intelligence, animals and materials, in the context of planetary ecologies.

Hosts: Victoria Sin & Lucia Pietroiusti
Production: Jessie Lawson & Jack Howson for Reduced Listening
Sound Design: Dane Law
Mixing: Rob Winter