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The actor's relation to the public is that of an artist, but in relation to his employer, he is a productive labourer . (Karl Marx, 1863) 1 Film stardom in the 1970s – freelance stars and the rise of the agent Because the ‘Bond phenomenon’ generated its own sub-industry, almost its own world, Connery had
refugee-serving organisations see online freelance work as a vehicle for ‘entrepreneurial’ self-reliance ( Easton-Calabria, 2022 ). Web-based income opportunities appear particularly relevant for forcibly displaced people because they seem detached from local regulations and markets. This makes them especially relevant in contexts where refugees face restricted labour market access and work in informal economies. While the wider digital economy incorporates all kinds of economic
digitisation of new and pre-existing types of work, as well as the digitisation of labour markets in a locally disembedded internet economy. 1 Both these layers share the implicit promise of inclusion and accelerated opportunity: just as anyone can in theory become a coder with the right motivation and hard work, often without the need for degrees or professional certifications ( Rushworth and Hackl, 2021 ), anyone from anywhere can – in theory – become an online freelancer
join global value chains ( Graham, 2015 ). This is particularly the case of online work platforms which allow corporations to hire freelance consultants on a global scale for tasks that vary in complexity, from very simple digital work that does not require qualification, such as categorisation of images and data entry, to more complex activities, such as translation and web design. In a study investigating digital livelihoods for displaced people, Easton
: 162–9). The conflicts in eastern DRC have been covered by both grands reporters and by regional specialists (heading the ‘Africa’ section of the daily newspapers, or correspondents and freelancers based in Goma, Kinshasa, Kigali or Nairobi). However, very few of the conflicts have been covered by French defence specialists, in part due to the recent lack of French military involvement in the DRC. 9 So I am talking primarily about regional
-based businesses beyond only three permitted sectors (food preparation, handicrafts and tailoring) while requiring that at least 70 per cent of the funding goes to the Jordanian partner, leaving little for the Syrian refugee ( IFC, 2021 ). Although the existence of legislative ‘loopholes’ has enabled some to take up limited gig work for employers based in other countries, for example, the lack of labour protections – paired with the challenges of registering freelance intellectual work as
connection that is frequently disrupted due to shortage of fuel supply ( El Deeb, 2022 ), and restrictions on bank accounts that transformed the financial dealings to a cash economy ( Ricour-Brasseur, 2022 ), compounded to work on digital labour platforms – such as freelancing or microwork– as an unfeasible option. Accordingly, local jobs were the only options available for the graduates: a programme that aimed to tap into the
, and the increasing flux of digital content. Rosenberg, Danielski, and Falconer were initially journalists in printed newspapers. The publication for which Falconer worked, for instance, progressed towards online reporting; when she left to write freelance assignments for non-profit organizations, she soon found herself writing for digital platforms, composing blogs and Facebook posts. Six years ago, when the CRC offered her a permanent position, she welcomed the opportunity to further this experience with social media in a stable and innovative environment
The book addresses – in 66 accessible entries – the global circulation of contemporary art in the moment of its fundamental crisis. By using the term ‘projectariat’, the book detours the classical Marxist concept to talk about the life and work of artistic freelancers – artists, curators, critics, academics, writers, technicians and assistants – who, in order to survive, have no choice but to make one project after another and many at the same time. The majority of projectarians do not own much beyond their own capacity to circulate. Thus, they are torn between promises of unrestrained mobility and looming poverty, their precarity only amplified by the global crisis caused by COVID-19.
The book is intended as both a critical analysis and a practical handbook that speaks to and about the vast cohort of artistic freelancers worldwide, people who are currently looking for ways of moving beyond the structural conundrum of artistic networks, where everything that is solid melts into flows – and where nothing is certain except one’s own precarity. The book’s narrative is based on a carefully crafted balance between its three constitutive strands: an uncompromising critique of the cruel economy of global networks of contemporary art; an emphatic, non-moralistic understanding of the perils of artistic labour; and systemic advocacy for new modes of collective action aimed at overcoming the structural deficiencies haunting the global circulation of contemporary art.