#zenbooth

A Prime Dystopia is a site-specific installation at Kreuzberg Pavillon (@kreuzbergpavillon) in Berlin-Kreuzberg, a neighborhood increasingly affected by gentrification and financial development. Expanding on the concept of the Amazon ZenBooth announced earlier this year, A Prime Dystopia applies its logic on a local scale, specific to the Berlin-Kreuzberg area. In a moment in which startup grocery delivery “dark stores” and e-scooter micro-mobility charging hubs are popping up in former storefronts across the city, the exhibition speculates on the future of Kreuzberg Pavillon and other project spaces in the neighborhood’s shifting economic landscape: in short, as displaced by another venture-capital funded, aspiring “unicorn” startup. The area around Kreuzberg Pavillon, which includes Oranienstrasse, Moritzplatz, and Kottbusser Tor, is a hotspot for e-scooters and food delivery riders. Blocks away, you’ll find multi-million euro commercial real estate developments Prinz17 and TheShelf nearing completion, looking to attract “Magnates, new talents, and digital pioneers” to the Berlin’s ‘creative center:’ Kreuzberg. The installation co-opts the friendly but sterile, neo-corporate visual language of these developments in the neighborhood’s ecosystem. Like the e-scooters often parked nearby, the installation itself also turns a vivid green in the evening, signaling its 24/7, always-on availability. A Prime Dystopia is on display until Sunday, October 24th at Kreuzberg Pavillon, Naunynstraße 53, 10999 Berlin. #aprimedystopia #kreuzbergpavillon #erinmitchell #zenbooth #berlinstartup #darkstores #gentrification #venturecapital #kreuzberg (at Kreuzberg Pavillon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVIyqheo7h0/?utm_medium=tumblr

To continue the illusion, there’s a QR code incorporated directly into the street-level installation of A Prime Dystopia. When scanned, instead of pulling up a page on your device where you can download the app, the QR code links to a page of news articles covering reported workers’ rights violations and self-organization efforts in the tech industry from the beginning of this year onward. For the duration of the exhibition, the page will act as an ongoing archive of relevant news articles and media, specifically seeking to bring visibility to the exploitative working practices around precarious, low-wage, and gig-economy labor, as well as the current self-organization of workers in the tech industry in Berlin and beyond. The online archive will be live for the duration of the exhibition, until Sunday, 24. October. If you’re also interested in these topics and would like to submit an article to the archive, please contact me! A Prime Dystopia 25.09.-24.10.2021 Kreuzberg Pavillon (@kreuzbergpavillon) Naunynstraße 53, 10999 Berlin 🌱 #aprimedystopia #kreuzbergpavillon #erinmitchell #zenbooth #amazoncrime #berlinvsamazon #berlinstartup #workersrights #solidarity (at Kreuzberg Pavillon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUxuYbpoU9W/?utm_medium=tumblr

Expanding on Amazon’s AmaZen ZenBooth (announced earlier this year as part of the company’s WorkingWell health and wellness initiative for US Fulfillment Center workers), I’m happy to share my latest project A Prime Dystopia, on display now at Kreuzberg Pavillon (@kreuzbergpavillon) in Berlin. Co-opting the friendly, approachable tone and visual language of tech industry advertising—flat, clean vector graphics, bold typography, and aspirational imagery—the installation seeks to bring attention to the generic, formulaic marketing communications of aspiring “unicorn” startups. While these companies position themselves as young, idealistic upstarts, they rely on the same traditional hierarchies of global financial power and systematic inequality they often claim to circumvent. Seeking to evoke a sense of uncannyness from passersby, the installation reimagines the Kreuzberg Pavillon project space as a product of the neighborhood’s continuing development and gentrification: in short, displaced. As competing, venture capital-funded delivery startup “dark stores” begin to surface in former storefront spaces across Berlin, it begs the question: how will these structures of international financial power continue to transform our local communities—and to whose benefit? Embedded in the window installation is a QR code paired with a call-to-action to download a hypothetical app. However, the forwarding link suggests another kind of call to action. For the duration of the exhibition, the page will act as an ongoing archive of relevant news articles documenting the exploitative working practices around precarious, low-wage, and gig-economy labor, as well as the current self-organization of workers in Berlin and beyond. The exhibition is on view at Kreuzberg Pavillon until Sunday, October 24th. The exhibition is on view day and night from the sidewalk with barrier-free access. A Prime Dystopia 25.09.-24.10.2021 Kreuzberg Pavillon Naunynstraße 53, 10999 Berlin 🌱 #aprimedystopia #kreuzbergpavillon #erinmitchell #zenbooth #amazoncrime #berlinvsamazon #berlinstartup #workersrights #solidarity #contemporaryart #sitespecific (at Kreuzberg Pavillon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUs00xrIpao/?utm_medium=tumblr

Preliminary research for my current exhibition at Kreuzberg Pavillon (@kreuzbergpavillon) in Berlin around the AmaZen ZenBooth, launched earlier this year as part of Amazon’s WorkingWell worker health and wellness initiative. Following immediate online backlash to the announcement, Amazon quickly deleted the ZenBooth promotional video, which took us inside a drab acoustic-padded phone booth with a computer, desk chair, and a few “natural” accents: a sky-patterned decal, a few small plants, and a mini desk fan. The announcement followed months of negative press coverage for Amazon, specifically in regards to complaints about the company’s grueling working conditions, union-busting practices at a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse facility and the company’s denial (and subsequent admittance and public apology) that workers often feel so pressured by productivity quotas that they resort to peeing in bottles. All this following the company’s soaring financial growth during the Covid-19 pandemic as Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth increased by $70bn in 2020, now $197bn today. A Prime Dystopia is now on view at Kreuzberg Pavillon until 24. October 2021. Access is free and open to public, barrier-free, 24/7 at Naunynstraße 53 10999 Berlin. #aprimedystopia #kreuzbergpavillon #erinmitchell #zenbooth #amazoncrime #berlinvsamazon (at Kreuzberg Pavillon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUYNMSzoNnW/?utm_medium=tumblr

Preliminary research for my current exhibition at Kreuzberg Pavillon (@kreuzbergpavillon) in Berlin around the AmaZen ZenBooth, launched earlier this year as part of Amazon’s WorkingWell worker health and wellness initiative. Following immediate online backlash to the announcement, Amazon quickly deleted the ZenBooth promotional video, which took us inside a drab acoustic-padded phone booth with a computer, desk chair, and a few “natural” accents: a sky-patterned decal, a few small plants, and a mini desk fan. The announcement followed months of negative press coverage for Amazon, specifically in regards to complaints about the company’s grueling working conditions, union-busting practices at a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse facility and the company’s denial (and subsequent admittance and public apology) that workers often feel so pressured by productivity quotas that they resort to peeing in bottles. All this following the company’s soaring financial growth during the Covid-19 pandemic as Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth increased by $70bn in 2020, now $197bn today. A Prime Dystopia is now on view at Kreuzberg Pavillon until 24. October 2021. Access is free and open to public, barrier-free, 24/7 at Naunynstraße 53 10999 Berlin. #aprimedystopia #kreuzbergpavillon #erinmitchell #zenbooth #amazoncrime #berlinvsamazon (at Kreuzberg Pavillon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUYNMSzoNnW/?utm_medium=tumblr

Private office phone booths