'paula' & Work - msdm [mobile strategies of display & mediation] publications is a house-studio-gallery founded by paula roush

'paula' & Work: A Document on the Machinic Enslavement in Academic Capitalism

AUTHOR: paula roush
INSTALLATION: photographs, video, academic furniture, university documents, archival research and ready-mades.
GALLERY: Borough Road Gallery London UK
DATE: May 2024
ARTISTS TALK: paula roush and Teodora Sinziana Alata. Ai Disruption: AI, education, technobiography, and the intersection with experimental AI in the works.

In *AI-centric Curriculum (2024)*, – the core photowork in In 'paula'&work' – I (paula) worked with an AI agent to generate ninety speculative academic titles reflecting my art-research portfolio and current academic labour market. This project emerged in response to my redundancy after a restructuring proposal at London South Bank University led to the closure of the Photography program. Drawing on my biography and job precarity, the AI produced titles such as “Professor of AI and Transitional Design,” “Curatorial Research Leader in AI and Digital Ecologies,” “Senior Lecturer in AI Ethics and Hydrofeminist New Materialisms,” “Principal Investigator in AI Artistic Technologies and Ecologies,” “Director of Pluriversal AI Studies,” “Chief Officer of Decolonial AI Strategies,” and “Head of AI Water Inquiry and Creative Practices.”

Using these titles, I trained an AI model on my headshots to generate a collection of academic portraits. These portraits were displayed on ten blue boards, a format commonly used in academic departments to present faculty members alongside their titles.

This project also includes a curated exhibition featuring documents and objects that highlight the impact of contemporary academic capitalism on the School of Arts and Creative Industries at London South Bank University, as well as on other arts and humanities departments across the UK. By juxtaposing these AI-generated portraits with archival materials related to institutional restructuring, *paula&work* examines the entanglements of labour, identity, and institutional critique within the neoliberal university landscape.

Included in the installation:
The Death and Life of UK Universities and the Cultural Spaces They Consume
video work and essay by Igea Troiani and Tonia Carless [ + ]

Supported by the London South Bank University (LSBU) Research Sabbatical Scheme for the 2023-24 academic year for an investigation into the colonial roots of the judicial portrait and current applications of artificial intelligence in governance and surveillance.

Installation view of paula roush, 'paula' & Work: A Document on the Machinic Enslavement in Academic Capitalism 2023-24, Borough Road Gallery London UK (May 8 - 14, 2024).

Exhibition zine
16 pages b&w, booklet design by paula roush
download here [+pdf, click & reload the page]