Come Closer: The Biennale Reader was published on the occasion of the first Biennale Matter of Ar... more Come Closer: The Biennale Reader was published on the occasion of the first Biennale Matter of Art and presents various perspectives on class, race, and gender differences as they manifest themselves in the specific contexts of post-socialist states—in their histories as well as in the present day. The focus is on art as a specific language that can mediate various experiences, while centering on emotions, intimacy, and care. This reader includes republished texts as well as newly commissioned contributions from both emerging and established artists, social and political scientists, and art historians from Eastern Europe, Asia, and the United States. The anthology was edited by Tereza Stejskalová and Vít Havránek, curators of the Biennale Matter of Art 2020. The book is available for purchase at the Biennale Center and at the GHMP as well as online via Sternberg Press.
Come Closer: The Biennale Reader Editors: Tereza Stejskalová, Vít Havránek Published by: tranzit.cz Design: Laura Pappa Distribution: Sternberg Press 14 × 21 cm, 296 pages, paperback
Featured authors: Jérôme Bazin, Heather Berg, Pavel Berky, Anna Daučíková, Patrick D. Flores , Isabela Grosseová, Vít Havránek, Marie Iljašenko, Rado Ištok, Barbora Kleinhamplová, Eva Koťátková, Kateřina Lišková, Ewa Majewska, Tuan Mami, Alice Nikitinová, Alma Lily Rayner, Sarah Sharma, Jiří Skála, Adéla Souralová, Edita Stejskalová, Tereza Stejskalová, Matěj Spurný, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, Simone Wille
Precarious Creativity examines the seismic changes confronting media workers in an age of globali... more Precarious Creativity examines the seismic changes confronting media workers in an age of globalization and corporate conglomeration. This pathbreaking anthology peeks behind the hype and supposed glamor of screen media industries to reveal the intensifying pressures and challenges confronting actors, editors, electricians, and others. The authors take on pressing conceptual and methodological issues while also providing insightful case studies of workplace dynamics regarding creativity, collaboration, exploitation, and cultural difference. Furthermore, it examines working conditions and organizing efforts on all six continents, offering broad-ranging and comprehensive analysis of contemporary screen media labor in such places as Lagos, Prague, Hollywood, and Hyderabad. The collection also examines labor conditions across a range of job categories that includes, for example, visual effects, production services, and adult entertainment. With contributions from such leading scholars as John Caldwell, Vicki Mayer, Herman Gray, and Tejaswini Ganti, Precarious Creativity offers timely critiques of media globalization while also intervening in broader debates about labor, creativity, and precarity.
This article argues that feminist critiques of pornography—conversations initiated in the feminis... more This article argues that feminist critiques of pornography—conversations initiated in the feminist “sex wars”—merge with post-Fordist work ethics to make the performance of authenticity a central component of porn work. Echoing antiporn feminist critiques that posit commercial sexuality as a danger and authentic sexuality its cure, porn managers describe authentic desire—in contrast to economic motivation—as a key feature of what makes a good worker. In turn, workers describe conjuring authenticity as central to the work of porn. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork and in interviews with workers and managers in the US porn industry, this article explores authenticity at the point of production. It investigates the emotional management strategies workers deploy in manufacturing authenticity, including workers’ strategies for negotiating work-life boundaries, relationships with coworkers, and the politics of payment in a work atmosphere in which part of the job is performing leisure. The demands of authenticity are particularly high in feminist and amateur porn, two genres explicitly marketed as “less manufactured” and ostensibly organized around greater worker control over production practices. But worker control as it exists in “less manufactured” productions can create new areas of strain, even as it alleviates others. Workers laboring “authentically” tend to give more time and energy for less pay. In contrast, workers in mainstream porn describe playing a role (defined as separate from the self) for a defined wage as something that protects them from emotional strain.
Come Closer: The Biennale Reader was published on the occasion of the first Biennale Matter of Ar... more Come Closer: The Biennale Reader was published on the occasion of the first Biennale Matter of Art and presents various perspectives on class, race, and gender differences as they manifest themselves in the specific contexts of post-socialist states—in their histories as well as in the present day. The focus is on art as a specific language that can mediate various experiences, while centering on emotions, intimacy, and care. This reader includes republished texts as well as newly commissioned contributions from both emerging and established artists, social and political scientists, and art historians from Eastern Europe, Asia, and the United States. The anthology was edited by Tereza Stejskalová and Vít Havránek, curators of the Biennale Matter of Art 2020. The book is available for purchase at the Biennale Center and at the GHMP as well as online via Sternberg Press.
Come Closer: The Biennale Reader Editors: Tereza Stejskalová, Vít Havránek Published by: tranzit.cz Design: Laura Pappa Distribution: Sternberg Press 14 × 21 cm, 296 pages, paperback
Featured authors: Jérôme Bazin, Heather Berg, Pavel Berky, Anna Daučíková, Patrick D. Flores , Isabela Grosseová, Vít Havránek, Marie Iljašenko, Rado Ištok, Barbora Kleinhamplová, Eva Koťátková, Kateřina Lišková, Ewa Majewska, Tuan Mami, Alice Nikitinová, Alma Lily Rayner, Sarah Sharma, Jiří Skála, Adéla Souralová, Edita Stejskalová, Tereza Stejskalová, Matěj Spurný, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, Simone Wille
Precarious Creativity examines the seismic changes confronting media workers in an age of globali... more Precarious Creativity examines the seismic changes confronting media workers in an age of globalization and corporate conglomeration. This pathbreaking anthology peeks behind the hype and supposed glamor of screen media industries to reveal the intensifying pressures and challenges confronting actors, editors, electricians, and others. The authors take on pressing conceptual and methodological issues while also providing insightful case studies of workplace dynamics regarding creativity, collaboration, exploitation, and cultural difference. Furthermore, it examines working conditions and organizing efforts on all six continents, offering broad-ranging and comprehensive analysis of contemporary screen media labor in such places as Lagos, Prague, Hollywood, and Hyderabad. The collection also examines labor conditions across a range of job categories that includes, for example, visual effects, production services, and adult entertainment. With contributions from such leading scholars as John Caldwell, Vicki Mayer, Herman Gray, and Tejaswini Ganti, Precarious Creativity offers timely critiques of media globalization while also intervening in broader debates about labor, creativity, and precarity.
This article argues that feminist critiques of pornography—conversations initiated in the feminis... more This article argues that feminist critiques of pornography—conversations initiated in the feminist “sex wars”—merge with post-Fordist work ethics to make the performance of authenticity a central component of porn work. Echoing antiporn feminist critiques that posit commercial sexuality as a danger and authentic sexuality its cure, porn managers describe authentic desire—in contrast to economic motivation—as a key feature of what makes a good worker. In turn, workers describe conjuring authenticity as central to the work of porn. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork and in interviews with workers and managers in the US porn industry, this article explores authenticity at the point of production. It investigates the emotional management strategies workers deploy in manufacturing authenticity, including workers’ strategies for negotiating work-life boundaries, relationships with coworkers, and the politics of payment in a work atmosphere in which part of the job is performing leisure. The demands of authenticity are particularly high in feminist and amateur porn, two genres explicitly marketed as “less manufactured” and ostensibly organized around greater worker control over production practices. But worker control as it exists in “less manufactured” productions can create new areas of strain, even as it alleviates others. Workers laboring “authentically” tend to give more time and energy for less pay. In contrast, workers in mainstream porn describe playing a role (defined as separate from the self) for a defined wage as something that protects them from emotional strain.
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Books by Heather Berg
Come Closer: The Biennale Reader
Editors: Tereza Stejskalová, Vít Havránek
Published by: tranzit.cz
Design: Laura Pappa
Distribution: Sternberg Press
14 × 21 cm, 296 pages, paperback
Featured authors:
Jérôme Bazin, Heather Berg, Pavel Berky, Anna Daučíková, Patrick D. Flores , Isabela Grosseová, Vít Havránek, Marie Iljašenko, Rado Ištok, Barbora Kleinhamplová, Eva Koťátková, Kateřina Lišková, Ewa Majewska, Tuan Mami, Alice Nikitinová, Alma Lily Rayner, Sarah Sharma, Jiří Skála, Adéla Souralová, Edita Stejskalová, Tereza Stejskalová, Matěj Spurný, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, Simone Wille
Papers by Heather Berg
Come Closer: The Biennale Reader
Editors: Tereza Stejskalová, Vít Havránek
Published by: tranzit.cz
Design: Laura Pappa
Distribution: Sternberg Press
14 × 21 cm, 296 pages, paperback
Featured authors:
Jérôme Bazin, Heather Berg, Pavel Berky, Anna Daučíková, Patrick D. Flores , Isabela Grosseová, Vít Havránek, Marie Iljašenko, Rado Ištok, Barbora Kleinhamplová, Eva Koťátková, Kateřina Lišková, Ewa Majewska, Tuan Mami, Alice Nikitinová, Alma Lily Rayner, Sarah Sharma, Jiří Skála, Adéla Souralová, Edita Stejskalová, Tereza Stejskalová, Matěj Spurný, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, Simone Wille