BETA VERSION http://laborersoflove.com

For most of the general public, the internet and it's myriad incarnations (Web 2.0, networked devices, etc.) are likely a major part of our lives. We do work online, socialize online, shop online and for some of us, have sex online. This "mediation of experience" and its resultant "ambient intimacy" continue to be a hot topic of debate as marketing firms, academics and concerned parents investigate the impact of social web media on our minds and our bodies.

Laborers of Love is a crowdsourcing project focused on the relationship between online sex and online work – or more specifically, the mediation of desire and sexuality through the creation of a just-in-time pornography website that leverages a global online workforce. The project intends to raise questions about how online culture has transformed what we mean by labor, sex, gender, sexual preference and collaboration, as well as how we think of pornography in terms of production and consumption. The project is being developed in consultation with gender studies specialists and several sex worker advocates in New York City and San Francisco.

The project evolved from another of our recent projects, “Invisible Threads”, a virtual designer jeans sweatshop created in the online 3D world of Second Life that hires Second Life citizens to operate virtual textile machines that manufacture real world, wearable jeans. This project provided the context for “Laborers of Love”, which, instead of Second Life, uses Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing engine, to create custom-ordered pornographic images and videos.

The process has 3 steps. First, customers input their sexual preferences into a web form and specify the amount of money that they want to spend. Next, their input is broken down and translated into tasks that are posted on the Mechanical Turk service. The customer's “bid” is divided up between the tasks, so the more the user bids, the faster and better the results.

Then, users can watch their order being dynamically assembled on the screen in real time via a visualization consisting of a global map showing the approximate geographic location of where the worker(s) are located and the images that they are choosing to be part of the product. Customer and worker identities and their exact locations will not be disclosed. The product will be a montage/Dada-esque video constructed from images and video clips found on the internet. We are interested in this interpretative aspect of the project and the relationship between what the customer imagines the outcome to be based on their input and how the workers actually assemble and create the final product.  At the end of the process, the customer receives the image or video which can then be printed, downloaded, or just kept online in the “Laborers of Love Online Gallery”.

Laborers of Love is obviously unlike other porn sites. The construction of the final image or video, a recombinant media product, is basically out of our control leaving the notion of "pleasure" open to interpretation.

1. First, we hire anybody, not just sex workers in order to bring our customers a diverse, global workforce of everyday people looking for jobs in this recession-wracked economy. (Under age-restrictions may apply)

2. Second, we strive for efficiency through the division of labor. Each image or video is created collectively by a team of workers based on customer's input. Through our special online, digital imaging tools, image production is automated and broken into individualized tasks assigned to a specific worker.

3. And finally, we make visible what is normally behind the scenes. As a customer, you can watch the "creative" process in real time through our visualization.

Through the project we hope to start a conversation about the growing global online workforce, the shifting role and definition of "sex worker", and what it means to collaborate creatively with strangers.

About Mechanical Turk:

Mechanical Turk (www.mechanicalturk.com) is an internet application created by Amazon.com that uses crowdsourcing – "the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call" (Wikipedia). With Mechanical Turk, most of the jobs are a few steps beyond automation – still requiring human intelligence to complete the task. Businesses list jobs and online workers get paid to fulfill the tasks requested. For example, a task might be to evaluate if two online product images are the same or to choose an appropriate category for an item. In addition, marketing companies are now using Mechanical Turk as an inexpensive way to collect more psychological and emotional information about consumers. For instance, Mechanical Turk workers getting paid to answer an online survey about products and services that gauges their behaviors, preferences and values.

99 Designs (www.99designs.com) is another crowdsourcing site that hires anonymous workers specifically for design jobs such as logo and website design. We are using 99 Designs to create the logo and website design for Laborers of Love.

Work-in-progress examples

Image shows data visualization of global workforce being mapped and image creation in progress. The customer will be able to view the process in real time.

ARTISTS

JEFF CROUSE
http://www.jeffcrouse.info

STEPHANIE ROTHENBERG
http://www.pan-o-matic.com

MICHAEL SCHIEBEN
http://www.rockitbaby.de

©2009 Laborers of Love I Jeff Crouse & Stephanie Rothenberg