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Artwork_local404 looks to ask the artistic community what they would want from an artists union by prompting them with a serious of situation they might find themselves in.
#creativesgeneralstrike #nocreationnoconsumption #againstsprecarity
GENERAL STRIKE – ARTWORK LOCAL 404
12 MAY 2021
24 HOURS WITHOUT CONTENT
Why a general strike?
For too long the world’s largest technology and media companies have been getting rich off our work and creations while artists struggle to make a living and face increasingly precarious job security. The use of content – created both by professional artists and everyday users – is what keeps social media sites, news and streaming platforms, and advertising networks running.
We will no longer stand for being just the content between adverts! For one day we will boycott not only the creating and sharing of all creative content, but also it’s consumption, publishing, and broadcast!
What are we demanding?
A living wage for artists – Fair, universal, and transparent fees and rates – Healthcare and social support for all artists and creatives – Artists control over the use of and rights for their work – Full recognition and crediting for artists’ work
How will this work?
For 24 hours on 12 May 2021 we are calling for all artists and creatives to stop working for 24 hours, to not deliver work to clients, and to not upload or share content on any website. We are also calling for a general boycott from the public of all platforms that require artistic content to make a profit.
Who can be involved?
Everyone! While this strike is about raising awareness of the plight of professional artists and creatives – from painters and writers to designers and musicians – we recognize that we are all content creators now. So we are calling on the public to boycott not only consuming online content but also the making of it. Show your solidarity by not sharing and uploading any photos, videos, tik toks, memes, etc. For one day – more than ever – we are all artists!
Visit our website for
more information – resources – downloadable flyers and posters – social media badges – local and online community groups – ideas for alternative activities for you and your family
Call us at +1 647 699-6404
To tell us how you want your union run
NO CREATION – NO CONSUMPTION
Stand for equal pay and security for artist and creators! Stand against exploitation and precarity! As both artists and consumers we are more than just the content between adverts!
IZZIE COLPITTS-CAMPBELL is an artist, designer and creative technologist whose work inhabits the interfaces between the body, leather and computational fashion. Her work explores gender and queer bodily experience primarily through hard/soft material juxtaposition and designing augmentations for bodily experience. Originally from Halifax NS, she now lives in Toronto and holds a BFA in software and electronic arts with a specialization in wearable technology from OCAD University.
Izzie’s creative praxis centres creating space to share and critically engage with technology, which is crucial to her own practice and that of her community. Through her work as president of Dames Making Games and member of the board at the Toronto Media Arts Centre, she is devoted to supporting and educating artists interested in software and electronic arts. She is a founding organizer of the game-art conference Damage Camp, now in its 3rd year running and has curated exhibits of game-art Internationally.
Izzie has been exhibiting work since 2008, most recently as part of Wired to Wear at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. She has given talks internationally on wearable tech, VR, tech-art, alternative education, community development and the points at which all these things intersect.
LEE JONES is a PhD student at the Creative Interactions Lab at Carleton University. In her research, she uses participatory design and creates easy-to-use toolkits so that individuals can build prototypes and have a say in the direction their technologies go in. In her current project, she is developing a toolkit for prototyping wearable e-textiles.
This past summer she was a research fellow at Open Style Lab in New York developing sewing toolkits with individuals with disabilities so they can alter their own clothes to be more accessible without compromising style. She’s currently teaching Wearable Technology at EcoEquitable and has taught the graduate course on Body Centric Technologies at OCAD University. She also loves running e-textile workshops in makerspaces, art galleries, and community organizations under the name Electro-Stitches.
EMMANUEL MADAN is an artist who works with sound and technology and an organizer advocating on behalf of the Canadian media arts community. After training in electroacoustic music composition and work in the community radio sector, he has since 1997 devoted himself to an art practice that spans digital and electronic art, installation and performance, audio and video. He is a member of the collective [The User] which he co-founded with architect Thomas McIntosh. He previously served as a Program Officer at the Canada Council for the Arts and is currently National Director ofIMAA.
TIM MAUGHAN is an author and journalist using both fiction and non-fiction to explore issues around cities, class, culture, technology, and the future. His work regularly appears on the BBC, New Scientist, and Vice/Motherboard. His debut novel INFINITE DETAIL was published by FSG in 2019 and was picked by The Guardian as the best science fiction and fantasy book of the year. He also collaborates with artists and filmmakers and has had work shown at the V&A, Columbia School of Architecture, the Vienna Biennale, and on Channel 4. He currently lives in Canada.