On September 20, 2019, Alex Mastrangelo, CEO of UnProductive Solutions Ltd., presented new technologies invented by the company to allow “users” to be less productive and less efficient and, therefore, more human. Mastrangelo shared these discoveries with two audiences: faculty and graduate students at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and artists and scholars attending Border Control, the annual symposium of the New Media Caucus. In a surprise turn of events, Mastrangelo’s lecture and workshop was an artwork and performance developed by artist Rebekah Modrak and art technology curator Marialaura Ghidini to critique assumptions about and dependence upon standardized logic and algorithmic efficiency.

This performance was the first action of a long-term project that explores the synergy between artistic and technological research to consider how the products and on-demand services of the e-economy (such as personal management apps, chat-bot enabled services, community marketplaces and on-demand concierge services) impact the way we communicate, work, relate to the environment, and live as part of a community.