Outsourcing is common in a global economy. It is often maligned for taking jobs away from American workers and is also a source of pop culture humor. For the people working in these jobs, however, it can mean the difference between staying home or leaving family and friends to work abroad. Foreign remittances from countries such as the Philippines constitute a large portion of their GDP. There are, however, domestic sectors with significant growth, most notably the proliferation of call centers.
Taking the Call Center as its inspiration, “ArtSourced: Call Center” will be a collaborative art project that will function as an exhibition/performance space with centers in the Philippines and US. Each call center will be a community space to explore mutual understanding between peoples about the role of creativity. It will function as a space to solve creative blocks and artistic difficulties but it will also be a space to explore the global art market, global economy, and collaborative practice. Artist volunteers will help callers with their creativity problems. Providing new perspectives facilitators will answer calls from listening stations equipped with VOIP technology. Facilitators will be trained to help callers with such issues as creativity block, studio practice isolation, and inability to put an idea into practice. For an American-based call center that reverses the usual relationship. American artists will work as call center agents to field calls from elsewhere. Images and other epherma, collected from the Manila-based call center will surround US call center as a point of reference and conversation.
The idea behind “ArtSourced: Call Center” is to dilute individual ownership of creative ideas by encouraging new models of creativity and global interconnectivity. It will reframe the isolation of studio practice and break the conventions of a “group” exhibition. Conversely, it will reveal the potentially dehumanizing and alienating quality of call centers as experienced by both workers and clients. As more and more countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America enter the global art dialogue there is a greater need for the exchange of ideas and collaborations. There is also more room for thinking about art in non-traditional ways such as more performative and conceptual rather than about the specific object and the art market, which often leaves little room for more experimental exchanges.
In “ArtSourced: Call Center,” artist-volunteers will act as “creativity facilitators” and will help callers with their creativity problems. The call center as live performance/installation will be open to visitors, conversations between callers and facilitators will be recorded and displayed as printed transcripts, artwork produced by the collaboration will be displayed as will documentation of the facilitators’ personalized cubicles. Through workshops, facilitators will be trained to help callers with their individual problems including but not limited to creativity block, studio practice isolation, and inability to put an idea into practice. Where traditional art exhibitions often feature sculptural objects, paintings, and photographs, “ArtSourced: Call Center” will present the process of creative/art problem-solving by encouraging conversations. “ArtSourced: Call Center” will explore collaboration as cross-cultural practice on a global scale. It will foster a dialogue about the nature of creativity itself and will also examine the economics of creativity.
Outsourcing is common in a global economy. It is often maligned for taking jobs away from American workers and is also a source of pop culture humor. For the people working in these jobs, however, it can mean the difference between staying home or leaving family and friends to work abroad. Foreign remittances from countries such as the Philippines constitute a large portion of their GDP. There are, however, domestic sectors with significant growth, most notably the proliferation of call centers.
Taking the Call Center as its inspiration, “ArtSourced: Call Center” will be a collaborative art project that will function as an exhibition/performance space with centers in the Philippines and US. Each call center will be a community space to explore mutual understanding between peoples about the role of creativity. It will function as a space to solve creative blocks and artistic difficulties but it will also be a space to explore the global art market, global economy, and collaborative practice. Artist volunteers will help callers with their creativity problems. Providing new perspectives facilitators will answer calls from listening stations equipped with VOIP technology. Facilitators will be trained to help callers with such issues as creativity block, studio practice isolation, and inability to put an idea into practice. For an American-based call center that reverses the usual relationship. American artists will work as call center agents to field calls from elsewhere. Images and other epherma, collected from the Manila-based call center will surround US call center as a point of reference and conversation.
The idea behind “ArtSourced: Call Center” is to dilute individual ownership of creative ideas by encouraging new models of creativity and global interconnectivity. It will reframe the isolation of studio practice and break the conventions of a “group” exhibition. Conversely, it will reveal the potentially dehumanizing and alienating quality of call centers as experienced by both workers and clients. As more and more countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America enter the global art dialogue there is a greater need for the exchange of ideas and collaborations. There is also more room for thinking about art in non-traditional ways such as more performative and conceptual rather than about the specific object and the art market, which often leaves little room for more experimental exchanges.
In “ArtSourced: Call Center,” artist-volunteers will act as “creativity facilitators” and will help callers with their creativity problems. The call center as live performance/installation will be open to visitors, conversations between callers and facilitators will be recorded and displayed as printed transcripts, artwork produced by the collaboration will be displayed as will documentation of the facilitators’ personalized cubicles. Through workshops, facilitators will be trained to help callers with their individual problems including but not limited to creativity block, studio practice isolation, and inability to put an idea into practice. Where traditional art exhibitions often feature sculptural objects, paintings, and photographs, “ArtSourced: Call Center” will present the process of creative/art problem-solving by encouraging conversations. “ArtSourced: Call Center” will explore collaboration as cross-cultural practice on a global scale. It will foster a dialogue about the nature of creativity itself and will also examine the economics of creativity.