WASTERS - Rick Pushinsky

Published by Chateau International, a collaboration between photographer Rick Pushinsky, artist and set designer Rory Mullen, artist Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau and stylist Karlmond Tang. WASTERS is a commentary on male ego, the neoliberalised labour landscape and the pointlessness of what David Graeber defined as “bullshit jobs”. Appropriating the characteristics of a fashion lookbook, WASTERS maps the interior and exterior worlds of a disaffected office worker, his redundancy due to automation all but guaranteed.

The advent of automation promised a 15 hour working week that has not come to pass. Whilst many labour-intensive, blue collar jobs have already been taken over by machines, AI now looks set to replace many of the clerical and service sector jobs that, until the pandemic, kept office buildings full and city-centre Prets busy. We’re currently witnessing a transition from a swollen administrative model – employees who are, in Graeber’s works, “basically paid to do nothing, in positions designed to make them identify with the perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class” – to skeleton workforces of multi-agent AI systems and chatbots.

Chateau International, 2024
Softcover, 48pp 
297 x 210 mm