[iDC] Virtual sweatin’ at Sundance

[info at pan-o-matic.com]

Dear IDC’ers,

In contributing to the discussion on Second Life and the politics of  
virtual labor I’d like to report on a hybrid reality, social  
networking project I recently exhibited/performed at the Sundance  
Film Festival with Jeff Crouse, Senior Research Fellow at Eyebeam in  
NYC. The project titled “Invisible Threads” explores the growing  
intersection between labor, emerging virtual economies and real life  
commodities through the creation of a designer jeans “sweatshop” in  
Second Life (SL). The factory virtually manufactures designer jeans  
that are “teleported” into the real world upon completion and worn by  
real live people. Simulating an actual textile facility, machines  
include Jaquard weaving looms, dye vats, laser fabric cutters,  
industrial sewing machines and quality control. SL citizens hired  
through job recruitment ads placed in the SL classifieds operate the  
various machines as well as serve as floor managers and security.  
I’ll first give an overview of how the project works and then I’ll  
divulge into the nitty-gritty of being a menacing, virtual factory  
manager.

For Sundance, we set up a temporary store at the New Frontier on Main  
Street – Double Happiness Jeans. Designer jean styles include “No  
Pants Left Behind”, “MyPants”, “LowRider” and “Casual Friday” in  
either boot cut, skinny leg, relaxed or classic. Customers place  
their jean orders via streaming audio and video into the virtual  
factory. SL workers watch the stream projected on a wall of the  
factory Orwellian style. In an assembly line fashion, the first  
worker starts the production process that involves loading cotton  
bales into the Jaquard loom. Once the fabric is made it moves down  
the assembly line through each machine. Each worker stationed at a  
machine is responsible for selecting the correct option based on the  
customer’s order, men’s or women’s size for example. The worker also  
has a limited time to press the correct button otherwise the assembly  
line stops and the order has to start over. At the end of the  
production process, the jeans go through the SL to real life (RL)  
“portal” resulting in an output from a large format printer.  
Customers at Sundance were able to watch the entire production  
process on a large flat screen installed in the physical space. Once  
in the real world, the jeans require simple assembly before being  
worn. Using what we call the pizza roller cutter, the jeans printed  
on a cotton canvas are quickly cut out and glue gunned together with  
stitched reinforcement on the crotch. (After many adhesive tests and  
many noxious fumes we found the glue gun to be the best and safest  
adhesive. Yet after sitting around in the jeans the glue became  
heated in the crotch area – need I elaborate further!)

So what was it like to run a designer jeans sweatshop amongst the  
stars? Well aside from the cheap thrill of having Robert Redford join  
my social network by signing my “MyPants”, the project raises some  
serious questions about the current cultural production of play and  
its relationship to outsourced, virtual labor. The project is based  
on research in motion economics, Taylorism and current goldfarming/ 
virtual sweatshops.

In case you aren’t familiar with goldfarming, for over the past five  
years, virtual sweatshops have been springing up all over the  
developing world. These makeshift sweatshops, usually a small shop or  
apartment with dormitory-style housing, employ predominantly migrant  
workers and single mothers to work 12-16 hour shifts or more  
“playing” games. The job involves either digging/farming for virtual  
gold and other assets or leveling-up characters (power leveling). The  
virtual assets and avatars are then sold online for real world  
currency with the sweatshop entrepreneurs raking in the cash (a good  
resource on the topic and model of distributed filmmaking http:// 
www.chinesegoldfarmers.com and of course Julian Dibbell).

The role of play and use of game-based models in the workforce has  
become incredibly pervasive as exemplified in corporate culture  
(www.seriosity.com, www.thegogame.com), education  
(www.instituteofplay.org) and advertising (Chevron’s “Energyville” -  
http://www.willyoujoinus.com/energyville). As Deleuze states in  
“Society of Control”, society has evolved into a “school of perpetual  
training” where the educational system feeds the corporation and what  
better way than through the use of play and games.

We chose Second Life as our medium to explore the conflation of  
leisure/entertainment and labor within the context of play and game- 
based models. Second Life obviously does not follow a traditional  
game model. Although educational institutions are starting to  
populate the world for online training and archiving purposes (which  
I am not dismissing), SL is ultimately about consumption and  
simulating upward mobility. You can have your dream mansion, look  
like Anna Nicole in her good days and drive a slick hovercraft.

Throughout the project we learned a lot about our workers. In the  
early job interview phase, we asked workers why they wanted to work  
in our factory and what expectations they had. Common jobs in SL are  
either camping where you sit in one spot for a period of time to gain  
Lindens (SL money) or escort services that are very similar to real  
world adult entertainment. (If one has building or scripting skills,  
more money can be made but for now I’ll just focused on unskilled  
labor.) Almost all of the workers had tried the other jobs and wanted  
a “decent” job in their second life. Most treat their second life  
with the respect and dignity of their first life – they want a good  
job in order to live a good life with nice things in SL. Several had  
previous factory experience! Over several days of training sessions  
and throughout the work days at Sundance workers developed  
camaraderie, similar to what happens at RL jobs where you interact  
with the same people on a day-to-day basis. A similar camaraderie and  
the experience of fun on the job have also been noted in the world of  
the goldfarmers.

So how is our factory a sweatshop and furthermore, how do you create  
the embodied, visceral conditions of a sweatshop in a synthetic  
world? For the goldfarmers, the general worker demographic, the  
amount of hours worked, the dormitory-style living conditions and the  
pay (slightly more than agricultural work) closely resembles the  
scenario of many real world sweatshops. Plus we must consider the  
actual job tasks involved. Digging for gold and slaying virtual  
tigers for up to 16 hours a day is a very repetitive task that does  
not involve a steep learning curve. And I’m sure most people on this  
list are familiar with repetitive stress injuries such as Carpal  
Tunnel Syndrome and other neck and back strain incurred from  
prolonged computer use. Goldfarmers receive no health benefits  
either. At least not to my knowledge.

In our “sweatshop”, workers received 200 Lindens an hour, about $.80  
USD depending on the daily exchange rate, for basically pushing a  
button. Workers also received a 500 m2 parcel of virtual land in  
front of the factory on Eyebeam Island that they can use for up to  
six months (TBD). This is about enough land for a medium size house  
and small yard. We set up the parcels with small shack-like housing  
to see how the factory village would evolve over the next few months.  
Some workers have chosen to keep the shacks while others have  
modified them to resemble more upscale dwellings or completely  
fantastical habitats. If we view this within the economy of SL, their  
lifestyle and salary could be considered blue collar to middle class.  
The worker could afford clothes (a pair of designer-like jeans in SL  
averages about 150 Lindens) and could work towards owning a small  
home but could not afford to own virtual property, the ultimate  
commodity in SL. Yet if we extend the virtual workers economics into  
the real world, they obviously couldn’t afford to live in the first  
world.

I realize our project is highly symbolic. Workers did not work full- 
time or overtime and worked from the comfort of their own homes. For  
the visitors/customers at Sundance, most not at all familiar with art  
and technology work or Second Life, the project got them thinking  
about how our products get made and about new models of production –  
telematic labor and a global, virtual workforce. Since the project  
resembled a retail store/kiosk, visitors were initially drawn to the  
crazy jeans hanging on our clothing racks. Everything you find on a  
real pair of jeans (pockets, belt loops, zippers) is printed onto the  
fabric but in exaggerated form becoming a characterization of the  
latest jeans styles – rips with knees sticking out, overly acid  
rinses (complete environmental hazard btw), the MyPants social  
networking jeans, the LowRider with boxers hanging out and a Double  
Happiness/Tommy Hilfiger logo (don’t worry Trebor we saved a pair for  
you). The jean prices were in both Linden dollars and US currency to  
show the relationship between the price of jeans and the workers’  
wages. It was also interesting to hear feedback from visitors who had  
seen Alex Rivera’s film debuting at Sundance called “Sleep Dealers”  
that is also focused on telematic labor (and won 2 awards, yeah!).  
What at first was the role of a retail sales person during the  
holiday season answering questions about size and fit evolved into a  
platform for discussing these critical issues with the general public  
(and many super smart kids!).

Although I could probably continue talking about the project for  
another 10 pages of email because it resonates on so many levels I’ll  
stop here. Our future plans include a potential showing at Fashion  
Week which I feel would be the ultimate success of our mission (if  
you have any contacts in the industry please send them our way) and  
an iteration that functions similar to mechanical turk is also on the  
table. Being good guys playing the role of bad guys has also made us  
think about ways to advocate for virtual workers rights, an issue  
Edward Castronova has been blogging about (http:// 
terranova.blogs.com). I would also like to post/publish more about  
the project, specifically conversations with our virtual workers –  
job recruitment interviews, worker expectations, feedback on working  
in the factory. Maybe a virtual Studs Turkel’s “Working”.

And last but not least, I welcome your feedback on the project and  
thoughts/comments on any of the issues I’ve attempted to tackle. I’d  
be happy to share my resources/delicious links. More info about the  
project including press links is available on the project site along  
with SLurl:
www.doublehappinessjeans.com

Visit the factory in SL: Eyebeam Island 204/43/27

My own site is www.pan-o-matic.com and my not-so-updated blog with  
related projects is at www.pan-o-matic.com/blog

Jeff Crouse's work located at http://www.jeffcrouse.info
(aka Supreme Hoodoo)

Look forward to continuing the discussion…

Cheers,

Stephanie Rothenberg
(aka Doctor Rodenberger)