From a human doing to a human being? Exploring the potential of laziness through exercises in doing nothing
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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Date
2021
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Master’s Programme in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art
Language
en
Pages
71
Series
Abstract
Could there be potential in doing nothing? Is it possible to use exercises in laziness to resist the prevailing obsession with activity and productivity, determined by the economy? This thesis examines the potential of laziness in a Western capitalist context. It aims to investigate the roots of our collective aversion to various passive states of being, and to ponder whether and how our view of laziness could be transformed. The framework through which the present thesis approaches these questions consists of a combination of theoretical and practical approach. The theoretical section analyses the concept of laziness. Besides this, the section reflects on societal and cultural developments that have led to our negative perception of all forms of idleness and reviews selected artworks that deal with the topic of inactivity. The practical section comprises a set of artistic self-experimentations in doing nothing as well as a film created as a result of these experimentations. The findings of the study suggest that laziness is a malleable concept: it has undergone several transformations in the past, and therefore it could be reinterpreted again. However, the self-experimentations conducted as part of the research indicate that doing nothing is surprisingly difficult, and that this difficulty, born from the activity-obsessed culture of the 21st century and promptly internalised, may hinder the transformation of laziness into something considered positive. Both the theoretical research as well as the practical experiments indicate, however, that the potential of laziness can be manifold: laziness can be utilised as a powerful tool of (societal) refusal, it can enable people to experience a temporality independent from demands of efficiency and consumerism, and even help people reclaim their individual autonomy, finding freedom from the imperative of productivity. A re-evaluation of laziness could, in short, help the burned-out people of the 21st century leave behind the destructive identity of a “human doing” and to shift back into being, simply, “human beings” once again.Description
Supervisor
Rajanti, TainaThesis advisor
Keywords
laziness, idleness, productivity, work, work refusal, doing nothing, labour, autonomy