PARTICIPANTS
        Natalie Bookchin

An artist working in both new and old media, Natalie Bookchin works collaboratively and independently on and off the internet and exhibits, performs and lectures widely in the US, Europe and on line. Her recent projects include The Intruder, an experimental adaptation of an eponymous short story by Jorge Luis Borges that explores a hybrid form of narrative existing on the border of computer and video arcade games, cinema and literature; power of the line, a collective/art class, and Introduction to net.art (1994-1999), made in collaboration with Alexei Shulgin. Bookchin is a member of faculty at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

    Symposium Abstract

I will discuss "play" as a tactic and use Metapet (metapet.net) as an example. Metapet is game of work as play, at first glance a dystopic futuristic nightmare of Taylorism gone mad. As a free game available on the Internet, one can start and stop playing as need be (for example when the boss enters the room). Players take on the role of manager whose presumable goal is to get their Metapet to work. However, winning may be a rather dull scenario, and rewards for occupying alternative subject positions and subverting the system are plentiful.