THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN is a game, a social study, an aesthetic endeavor and a vehicle for touching upon a most sensible measure of people’s hope: WORK as a mean to lead a SELF-GOVERNED LIFE.
THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN seeks to encourage and facilitate artists and other applicants to act as CATALYSTS in the project, developing and publishing their own social interventions as part of the NEW LIFE BERLIN Festival, June 1–15, 2008.
The campaign goal is to bring citizens together in Job-situations, and so to discover and portray what happens when cooperative scenarios are established for people who would most likely never form a relationship - because of ethnic or religious differences, their belonging to different social classes, age groups, gender, etc.
Supported through workshops, lectures and multimedia trainings, THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN will be launched in Berlin Neukoelln, a borough said to be the hardest in the city; troubled by unemployment, stigmatized by social welfare, threatened by youth gangs, infiltrated by organized crime and energized by cultural diversity.
The projects primary target group (to do jobs) is teenagers met by chance while walking around in Neukoelln. Equipped with THE FLASH JOB STARTER KIT (including a form for parental signature in cases of under-age youth and instructions concerning the Youth Work Protection Act), the CATALYST looks for small jobs beyond regular employment.
In practical terms, selected applicants will set up DEALS between small businesses and local teenagers. Even without knowing each other, teenagers and business owners must be willing to commit to the rules of a Flash Job: A one-time job of maximum 3 hours where afterwards, the teenager is given a fee, the job client rates the performance quality of the teenager AND the teenager rates the job client.
To secure a job deal, it will be up to you as a CATALYST to convince both parties about fairness and goals. Your task is furthermore to investigate, portray and REPORT to the NEW LIFE BERLIN Festival when, how and why things went the way they did. You can use whatever medium you prefer for your documentation.
THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN is launched from the most simple of questions: “Why are the market mechanisms of globalization and the facilities of the so-called creative class, so impenetrable to such a vast number of people?”
THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN and its conceptual patron TeenKom (a price-winning project currently being implemented in Berlin Schoeneweide) are conceived and coached by Berlin-based ArtSourceLab - an interdisciplinary network founded in 2001 by artist and activist Per Traasdahl for the development and societal implementation of sustainable, social micro-models.
Lucia Baruelli
Marie-Laure de Beausacq
Suzanne Caines
Patrick Grüneberg
Amanda Gutierrez
Art Haegenbarth
Christopher Anthony Harden
Lucilla Kossowska
Kristin Mueller
Stefanie Schairer
Fedele Spadafora
Shelton Walker
Ann Rapstoff
Joanna Loveday
APPLICATION INFORMATION
1.) To apply for this project, you must have a WOOLOO.ORG account. Please click here to sign up for free
2.) THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN is part of the NEW LIFE BERLIN Contemporary Art Festival taking place from June 1st -15th 2008.
3.) The application deadline for THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN is midnight May 25th, 2008. (Pacific Standard Time.)
4.) The application is FREE.
5.) The application is open to anyone who will spend at least one week of June 2008 in Berlin on a social journey exploring if FLASH JOBS can stimulate integration within communities and a greater SELF-GOVERNANCE among socially disadvantaged citizens.
6.) By applying for the role of a CATALYST, an applicant commits him- or herself to partake in one workshops lead by Per Traasdahl of ArtSourceLab on Sunday, June 1, 2008. The workshop takes place from 17:00 – 19:00 (5-7 PM) at FAIR-ETHICS Gesellschaft für Kunst & Asthetik, Karl Marx Strasse 168, 12043 Berlin, Germany. The workshop, the coaching and the monitoring services throughout the two festival weeks are FREE for all participants - made possible through the sponsors of the NEW LIFE BERLIN festival.
7.) Applicants commit themselves to the planning and execution of social interventions for the sake of enacting FLASH JOBS in the borough of Neukoelln Berlin, and to subsequently edit their material and submit a REPORT on their experience to ArtSourceLab before the last day of the Festival: June 15th 2008.
8.) All selected participants of THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN will be credited as Festival artists on the online Artists Program should they wish so. Accreditation will be listed on the official Festival website, as well as in all post-festival documentation material in both printed and other form.
9.) You will receive an entry confirmation via email, as soon as your online application has been received by Wooloo.
10.) All applications must be made in English through your Wooloo account. Do not send physical material to us, as this cannot be returned.
11.) By submitting an application, you agree that this application and all its accompanying material can be displayed to ArtSourceLab, as well as any other individuals or groups that Wooloo Productions deem appropriate.
12.) Wooloo Productions reserves the right to modify the project information at any time. Any modifications go into effect the day they are posted and apply to all individuals registered for the project.
DISCUSS THIS PROJECT
artsourcelab
GERMANY
May. 05, 2008 12:33
Hello to people interested in THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN, application DEADLINE May 18th!!
we have had a broad variety of response so far. Some excelent applications coming from artists and activist in Canada, USA, Poland, Germany have already been accepted for participation. Other applications were from artist submitting documentation of their work. The rejection of those applications is not a statement about the work, but simply because the application did not explicitly address the issues of the campaign. We like to know why someone would like to participate and which relevant experiences they have. This does not mean, that we only accept very experiences applicants. The bottom-line is, that those you participate have a clear mind of why they do it.
Among already accepted participants, we have touched upon interesting issues like "why does the social intervention has to concern itself with work?", "couldn't other topics as well be focused?"
Well, lets discuss this in the forum! My immediate answer (as initiator of the campaign) is, that: please keep in mind, that while we set WORK as the given top topic, the things we are looking for, are all the things, that happens as "side-effect" of the objective WORK.
WORK - the Flash Jobs - set a focus that has a minimum to do with "social likes and dislikes". Hence, we bring people together, who would normally not meet... and there the story can begin... and "you" - the activist, catalyst, artist or what you might call yourself, is the one setting up to framework for action, and the parameters for interpretation.
If you have any questions, feel free to email us at flashjob@teenkom.de - however, better is when you post your questions and ideas here, where more people can join the considerations.
stefanieschairer
GERMANY
May. 05, 2008 15:52
Hallo,
I participate on the job flash compaign project and seek other participants who want to work in a group and want to do some brainstorming before the project starts. There are some ideas in my mind, but no definete plan.
best stefanie
artsourcelab
GERMANY
May. 14, 2008 15:23
Hello Stefanie,
we have so far accepted 8 applicants as "catalysts" in THE FLASH JOB CAMPAIGN". They come from the USA (Chicago, New York), Canada, Poland and Germany - with backgrounds in art, social work, philosophy, community development and community activism. All applicants have submitted texts, which I think are very interresting (in different ways) and saying for the excitement not knowing what will happen after everything starts on the evening of June 1st in Berlin. In a few days I will write you all, so to start the "warming up" of the social intervention.
By the way: the application deadline is extended to May 25th.
Tip: use the utilities in your wooloo account: start a blog (activate it in "main control/personal"). In "main control/configure site" you can set your blog as the front page.
Then, to generate attention, write an entry in the discussion forum and put a link to your profile page. To set a link in your discussion entry see the the lines below the text-entry-area, copy and paste the line after "Required code to post a link -" and replace the "link.com" with your specific web-address AND the "link" with the name of the web-address. Click "previes" to check everything is OK.
annrap
UNITED KINGDOM
May. 21, 2008 13:10
Hi I am part of The Open Dialogues team arriving in Berlin to write about what we see during the festival. I am interested in the strategies of Flash Job Campaign taking work as a conduit by whihc people can come together and place themselves in new and challenging environments, I am also interested in the notion of risk in doing this. Do i need to apply to find out more about Flash or how do I get to hear more and find out more when at the festival Best wishes Ann Rapstoff
artsourcelab
GERMANY
May. 28, 2008 12:34
Hi Ann,
I am glad we got in touch, so you are now docked on to our project. The dialogue within The Flash Job Campaign will start within a few days. The application procedure is over and from now on, the project will show itself through individual blogs of the 5 onSite Catalysts, the 6 visiting Catalysts, the 2 long-distance Catalysts and 2 writers from the Open Dialogues project. They will publish their doings and statements within this discussion forum, so that anyone can join the collective reflections.
Keep our upcoming event in mind: The public Kick-Off workshop, Sunday June 1, 5-7 pm at FAIR-ETHICS Society for Art & Aesthetics, Karl Marx Str. 168, Berlin Neukoelln.
Hi I am Joanna, I will involved as a writer/catalyst on the flash job campaign. To read my application text click here: Joanna_MyReport_story_01
stefanieschairer
GERMANY
May. 30, 2008 14:43
Hi I am Stefanie, I will involved as a catalyst on the flash job campaign. I am looking forward to all those who are involved too.
To read my application text click here:
http://www.wooloo.org/stefanieschairer/s3Bl og.php#ANC_519
hola
I am Kristin and after being introduced in bloging yesterday, i want (and now i am able;))to offer you a view on my intentions to take part in the Flash Job Campaign Kristin_MyReport_story_01
I think you are quite right. I spoke at length regarding this with Ann (a member of the Open Dialogues group) and Per. After being involved in the project, I really feel like its 90% the process and the interactions we make along the way - the final completion of the job is of course, wonderful if it happens, but there is so much value to be had reading in the in-between.
That said, I actually was able to use my being a foreigner and speaking only english to advantage, and completed a job. Here's a link to the story.
Here is the intervention that I'm going to present as part of the Flash Job.
This is based on participants interest to talk about gentrification, and issues around their neighborhood.
Here is the intervention that I'm going to present as part of the Flash Job.
This is based on participants interest to talk about gentrification, and issues around their neighborhood.
Note from the Webmaster: The two identical posts from Amanda above have a technical error in the link. Please use the following until we correct the error:
Hi Anne,
Thank you for writing about the job you had at hand at the Rolls Royce Garage. It serves also as a correction of the lines I wrote about it in my 5 day resume - Per_MyIntervention_story_ 02
I wrote, that the owner "backed out", and as you now write about it again, I remember that you indeed told me, that he was too busy because of upcoming holiday, but that he was willing to do the Flash Job after June 30th. In my memory I had too strongly focused, that he - when you had met him - seemed to want to do the Flash Job, but as you called him from our office had "backed out". But - as shows your correction - he had FAIR reasons to not do the Flash Job now, and he did offer another date. I case he would read my 5 day resume and this text I would offer him my apology.
A Tips & Tricks comment on this topic could be: Watch out for how you transfer facts from one scenario to the other. Peoples perspectives are embedded in facts, which, however, to the perception of others, tend to be dealt with as fiction. Hence, deals are made on the resource of fiction, whereas facts are the outcome of action.
A FAQ entry could be: How absolute are facts, when you transfer them from one scenario to another?
Under which circumstances do we take NO for an answer?
A Catalyst (the name we purposely picked for the role of participators of The Flash Job Campaign because it is not in conventional use) bounces between many roles:
For the salesman, the NO is the invitation to improvise other ways to evoke a YES to a deal.
For the journalist, the NO is the invitation to dig into the reasons behind.
For the missionary, the NO is the reason for saying: "I know what you mean. I also don't like it".. only in order extract a YES as soon as the attitude of compassion has watered down the stress of having to say NO.
For the artist, the NO is the reason for describing, exposing and exhibiting the idea the NO in all its contradiction (but without wanting to change to no).
For the politician the NO is the reason to count the NOs and then rewrite the agenda in case the NO-sayers are a majority.
For the owners wife, the NO is the reason for saying "thanks, you work enough already, why spend two hours on a teenager, who you don't know before or after.
So, this leads to the FAQ: what are the chances of being taken serious with a NO? Is Fairness when we do take NO for an answer? Do we ourselves take NO's for an answer?
Depends, you might say? On what, I do ask:
stefanieschairer
GERMANY
Jun. 10, 2008 16:26
Hi,
in my blog I just published a story about the garden lady and the Turkish father and his 10 year old son. For almost one week, Fedele and I were working on finding a Flash Job for the Turkish kids in spite of all the people saying that there is not enough trust around to do so.
The story takes you from the beginning of our intervention until the nervous issues of making a deal.
Hi,
in my blog I just published a story about the garden lady and the Turkish father and his 10 year old son. For almost one week, Fedele and I were working on finding a Flash Job for the Turkish kids in spite of all the people saying that there is not enough trust around to do so.
The story takes you from the beginning of our intervention until the nervous issues of making a deal.
Hi,
in my blog I just published a story about the garden lady and the Turkish father and his 10 year old son. For almost one week, Fedele and I were working on finding a Flash Job for the Turkish kids in spite of all the people saying that there is not enough trust around to do so.
The story takes you from the beginning of our intervention until the nervous issues of making a deal.
Hi,
in my blog I just published a story about the garden lady and the Turkish father and his 10 year old son. For almost one week, Fedele and I were working on finding a Flash Job for the Turkish kids in spite of all the people saying that there is not enough trust around to do so.
The story takes you from the beginning of our intervention until the nervous issues of making a deal.
Hi,
in my blog I just published a story about the garden lady and the Turkish father and his 10 year old son. For almost one week, Fedele and I were working on finding a Flash Job for the Turkish kids in spite of all the people saying that there is not enough trust around to do so.
The story takes you from the beginning of our intervention until the nervous issues of making a deal.
I awaked, opened my eyes...it was the day, where we would have our Flash Job between the garden lady and the Turkish kids...Friday the 13th, I am not superstitious, but when I opened my eyes, I just could see grey sky and it seemed like our "act" could be in danger.....
