The work I am doing on this artist residency is complex. I have no job description and as this is a Utopian community I am free to do what I want. But hold on – the kind of work that the Academy wanted to do, and their intentions, were made clear in the proposal. So that forms the beginning of a social contract. I need to follow that don’t I?
The proposal began like this: “Current debates about our economic and social well-being, and about the work-life balance raise important questions about how we define well-being, how we define good work and how we can better organize places where we can work well. The philosophy, values and daily life of Christiania would offer significant insights on how work can be framed, about the status, value and exchange rates connected to our labour, and about job satisfaction and reward systems in the workplace.
The proposal from the Higher Academy of Happiness focuses on research needed to establish criteria for our Happiness in the Workplace Awards, using Christiania as a case study and a model of practice.”
So there we have it – the Academy arranged for me to be here for three weeks to conduct action research using art practice as a way of finding out about and making sense of the questions they need to know the answer to. Good questions? Yes. Will I find a good answer? I don’t know. Sometimes I’m not even sure how to define the work an artist does or the best conditions to do that work. It keeps shifting. I think the Academy would like me to make something and take a picture of it though. I need evidence.
I have been reading some of the key texts around work and organization today. My initial work utilizing the MBWA strategy (Management By Wandering Around) produced some good results and I have a long list of the work I notice going on here. However the central concern for business schools currently is leadership.
Artists I think have a lot to offer to the leadership debate. I am considering introducing a new concept during this residency. The LBLD strategy. Leadership By Lying Down would evidence critical incidents of overwork that I notice going on around me.
