Labour, work and play: action in fine art practice

<p>These notes draw particularly on the ideas of Daniel Willis, as expressed in his book The Emerald City and Other Essays on the Architectural Imagination, (Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1999), concerning the nature of different productive and unproductive forms of activity. Specifically, the demarcation of such activities in terms of the categories of labour and work are used as a basis for interrogating some forms of creative practice. One particular characteristic of both labour and work is found in its objective and subjective organization of time. These notes question those practitioners who produce ‘works’ of art by the means of labouring productive action, including its particular organization of time.</p>