Click Here to Comment3/16/2019 Two Swedish Artists Are Hiring One Lucky Person to Do Absolutely Nothing for the Rest of Their Lives
Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby have created the Eternal Employment project, offering an open-ended job at a Swedish train station in 2025. Taylor Dafoe, March 6, 2019 A mock-up of the redevloped Korsvägen train station in Gothenburg, Sweden. Courtesy of Public Art Agency Sweden. A covetable new job is opening up in Sweden in 2025. It boasts a competitive salary with annual wage increases, permanent job security, and an enviable package of perks. The duties? Absolutely anything you want them to be. The stunt, called Eternal Employment, is the brainchild of Swedish artists Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby, who are known for conceptual projects that explore economics. As Atlas Obscura reports, the duo will award one person an open-ended, lifetime job with no rules or responsibilities other than that their work (such as it is) be carried out at Korsvägen, a massive transportation hub in Gothenburg, Sweden. The worker can spend their time on the clock however they see fit—napping, learning Latin, watching Friends reruns—so long as they check in and out of Korsvägen at the beginning and end of every day. While the official application won’t be posted until closer to the opening of the new Korsvägen station in 2026, the comprehensive job description is up now. It states that the employee must punch the clock every morning—a process that will activate the lights at the station. They will be given a dedicated area where they can keep their belongings. They are guaranteed lifetime employment. Should the person choose to resign or retire, another employee will be chosen. The city of Korsvägen—which was once home to Volvo—is currently undergoing a transformation from a manufacturing center into a cultural hub. It was this shift that inspired the artists to develop the project. As the working class is threatened to be squeezed out of the city, Goldin and Senneby have created a job that gives complete control to the worker, shifting the power dynamics. The project is funded by a $650,000 prize from the Public Art Agency Sweden and the Swedish Transport Administration. The salary will be paid for by the interest the prize money accrues. “The endless duration of this employment is feasible because money pays better than work,” the description reads. “As long as we live in a society where the return on capital is substantially higher than the average increase in wages, Eternal Employment is kept afloat.” Goldin and Senneby have set up a foundation to oversee the project, an entity that will be responsible for choosing the candidate, doling out their compensation, and ensuring that the endowment is not in jeopardy of running out. The foundation board will also be tasked with “collecting and making accessible secondary mediation, such as news stories, reportages, rumors, jokes, and urban legends the project generates over time.” If you get the gig, rest assured you will be doing important conceptual work even if you spend your days doing nothing but looking at Instagram. “What remains in an employment without productivity is time,” the job description notes. “In this sense we can understand the employee as a witness of time. Even an embodiment of time itself https://news.artnet.com/art-world/two-swedish-artists-offering-lifetime-employment-opportunity-gig-anything-want-1481962 When I first saw this article on Facebook I thought it was fake or a satire from The Onion. These two Swedish artists are going to hire and pay someone for a job without defining what the job responsibilities are. Feel free to answer one or all of these questions: Do you think that this type of experimentation counts as art or should it be labeled as psychology or something else? Do you think that this is a silly attention grabbing stunt or a brilliant social experiment? If you were hiring someone for this job, what kind of person would you be looking for? Would you apply for this job and if so what would you spend your time doing?
17 Comments
eden white
3/24/2019 11:21:43 pm
Hey Cat,
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Nathan L.
5/7/2019 10:05:50 am
I think that the art piece should be labeled a social experiment rather than an art work, since the project would be focused on what a person does with their time when nothing inhibits them but location. This would also showcase what the person would do in their own will and there would be no artist interaction in the work.
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Seems like a good social experiment. I would be curious to see who and how they determine who is qualified or in most need of the job.
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4/7/2019 10:29:05 pm
That's the dream. I agree with Eden on the purpose of this experiment. In our culture we romanticize work. We let our jobs define us as people. "What do you do" is one of the first questions people ask each other when they first meet. What if that weren't the case? What if people were allowed to pursue their interests rather than exist merely to make someone else rich? That is the goal of many leftist schools of thought, particularly regarding automation. Most jobs will be automated quicker than we think. If we take public-ownership of that automation we could all be free from work in the near future. This social experiment may be a test run to show us what that could look like.
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Nathan L.
5/7/2019 10:10:43 am
If I was to hire someone for this job, then I would look for a person who was either socially adept or socially awkward to see how they would interact in the confinement of the station. I'd like to see the awkward person either open up or shut down, same with the socially adept person but perhaps if theyd form supply chains or create some system to get goods.
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Nathan L.
5/7/2019 10:16:14 am
I would not apply because that sounds absolutely boring, If I was to be hired for this job, then I would lose my mind and probably run around in circles. I'd be very bored.
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Robyn
5/13/2019 04:24:30 pm
Hmm.. this sounds like it would be a psychology experiment! I would want to refine my hobbies and pretend it's about them.
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Jon Snow
5/13/2019 07:15:28 pm
Hi Cat,
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Emily Wu
5/13/2019 07:25:09 pm
The first thing that I find strange is that they are already talking about this job, yet it won’t start until 2026? Guess I’m giving 7 years notice to my current job. To me this 100% sounds like nothing other than a social experiment. It is, however, an interesting concept. I think in our current economy people who have a job feel that they have their assigned duties and they have no obligation to stray away from them. In this situation the lucky individual will be able to create their own job description. How they choose to spend their day is up to them. Anyone who works knows there’s great beauty in that. If I was hiring for this position, I would look for someone with zero relevant experience and the personality of a boulder. Why, you ask? Because it literally doesn’t matter.
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Bleh Ghopdah
5/13/2019 10:08:35 pm
I think this could most generically be named a psychological experiment but I use that term Loosely. To me you need more data points than just one person to be a good experiment. So as it stands it seems more like a psychological stunt
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Aiden assist
5/13/2019 11:19:37 pm
Did anyone else notice it said “the employee must punch in every morning - a process that will activate the lights at the station”? It sounds like this job isn’t completely undefined. There may be more stipulations, perhaps signing out turns off the lights. If that’s the case I would find an employee that is very punctual and always on time.
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Grace
5/14/2019 07:00:46 am
I’m not sure as to the nature of it being psychology or art, I could see it as being both. I do think it’s interesting in that as certain industries change and move towards more automation, the worker’s job role and livelihood will have to be thought more deeply about and not really doing much at work could be a real thing. But I just wonder if mentally a person who punches in and out everyday will be fulfilled on a deeper level? Do we need to be doing ‘something’ or is getting paid to not do as much enough? I may have missed the mark on understanding this social experiment but that’s kinda of where my thoughts stayed. Thanks for sharing!
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Luis Alex Fierro
5/14/2019 06:18:35 pm
5/8/2019 05:59:11 PM
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Dania
5/14/2019 06:19:20 pm
5/12/2019 05:14:32 PM
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I accidentally replied to a comment instead of posting but my thoughts still stand:
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William Doolittle
5/15/2019 11:06:14 pm
This article is fascinating. The idea itself is great. I think that it would be a wonderful endeavor. However, I do think that it falls into more of a social science than art. I think it would be interesting to analyze the awarded party’s use of the time to see how someone who does not have to worry about monetary support would ultimately spend it. I would definitely apply for this job and I think that the hiring process should probably be random. I think that it is only fair as a social experiment to treat all applicants fairly.
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Roy
5/16/2019 03:10:45 pm
This seems more like a reality show premise than art. If I had to label it I would say social experiment. That being said I can’t wait to hear more about this.
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