In 2022, I mounted a mechanical time clock to my studio wall. I designed 365 custom time cards to be used with the clock. Each time card represented a block of my time that would be spent unproductively on behalf of a patron or collector.
Each time card was initially blank and could be “redeemed” by the collector by sending it back to me. Once I received the card, it was queued up for fulfillment.
When the card's turn had arrived, I would then “punch in” using the physical card and time clock before then spending an unspecified amount of time doing absolutely no work whatsoever. The time clock stamped the card with the exact time and date of the session.
After the session of “no work" had been completed, I would “punch out” using the card, scan it, and then update the metadata/image digitally before sending it back to the collector. The card would be numbered, signed, and include a brief hand-written description of the “no work” that was rendered. The entire process was done manually by hand.
Of the 365 time cards, I kept 14 for my personal collection and usage. The total collection supply represented the 365 days within a year, and the 14 cards I kept represented my 2 weeks of vacation time. The 10 black cards represented 10 paid holidays. The 250 white cards represented the 250 business days within the year 2022. The 105 primary color cards collectively represented the 105 weekend days in the year 2022.
The first time card to be completed occurred directly after the Ethereum Merge event happened in September 2022. The Merge was the moment in which the Ethereum blockchain transitioned from a “proof of work” algorithm to a “proof of stake” algorithm. At roughly the exact moment the Etheruem blockchain “stopped working” for the first time, so did I.
Behind-the-Scenes
Project Announcement
To announce the project to the world, I wrote a blog post that detailed the context in which the art project was occurring. The post shines some light into my thinking.
"Ethereum is about to stop working (and so am I)"
If you're a fan of Ethereum, then you might have had a visceral reaction when you read the title of this post. Maybe that's why you clicked on it in the first place. On its face, "Ethereum Stops Working" is a statement that seems to imply a cataclysmic failure that would wipe out a multi-billion dollar market and an entire industry. It's a statement many would hope to never read in a news headline. But, it's a technically true statement about the blockchain's transition away from using a "Proof-of-Work" algorithm.
After approximately midnight tonight (if all goes according to plan) Ethereum will stop working. And yet, in another sense, it will continue to work... hopefully better than before. It will begin working in a new way that is more sustainable and less energy intensive, thereby setting itself (and the environment) up for a healthier future.
If you've been paying attention, you'll notice that this shift mirrors the world around us in many ways. The nature of our work life is in flux. Jobs don't last as long as they once did, and they aren't conducted in the same ways that they used to be. Additionally, costs of living are increasing, inflation is on the rise, and wages aren't keeping up.
The Great Resignation, Quiet Qutting, and Lying Flat are all happening because the way we work is (ironically) not working and people are tired. Things have to change. Like the Ethereum blockchain, we need a more sustainable way to work.
If we'll let it, The Merge asks us the question "what is work?"… and then beckons us into a new world in which the traditional structures of productivity can begin to dissolve, making way for healthier models.
The Merge can help us reframe our understanding of work and abandon the binary world view that it imposes upon our bodies and brains. It gives us a chance to see that working and not working are one.
The Merge is a reminder that the rat-race of hustle culture, corporate surveillance, and micro-management is an energy intensive method of control over human bodies that is not sustainable and is not healthy.
For my latest conceptual art project called "Proof of (No) Work", I've sold 365 time cards that will be used with a mechanical time clock. Such time clock devices were historically used to keep track of how many hours an employee spent working so that they could be monitored for performance, attendance, and paid commensurately. The time clock is the old way of doing things.
I designed the time cards that I will be using for this project myself, and each one represents a chunk of my time that will be spent unproductively on behalf of a collector. Each card is square shaped to evoke the imagery of the blocks in a blockchain. I will "punch in" when I begin a "no work" session and then "punch out" when finished. A brief note will be hand-written on each card describing what I did.
In a sense, people who bought these time cards paid for my time, but instead of working on their behalf like in a traditional employment relationship, I am spending it as unproductively as I can... watching TV, reading books, meditating, taking naps, playing games, drinking coffee, going for walks, etc. etc.
Each activity may or may not seem productive or unproductive to any given person, and I expect that during each session I might wrestle with whether or not what I’m doing is actually unproductive. The reason for this is that the concepts of productivity and work are incredibly subjective and culturally defined. Some might even say they are deeply intertwined.
Proof of (No) Work is my response to the current state of employment. I hope that this project will help me (and you) think more deeply about the ways in which we do and don't work.
And so, when the Merge occurs and the Ethereum blockchain stops working tonight... so will I.