Collaborative systems of care

How do we collectivise the care of our waste and selves to successfully undermine scarcity, are art organisations uniquely situated to create such systems.
Looking at cooperatives and arts space as case studies for a practice grounded in repair

If I am to begin the generational work of cleaning up the mess of colonisation, I need to create abundance from the tailings of our extractive culture. It is the only resource.

I have worked in cooperatives for the past few years and currently work at an opshop coop that engages in repair, my disquiet with the uselessness of art as a metaphorical tool has asked my practice to not only bath myself in the abundance of waste, but create a communal abundance that becomes a robust commons

Intimacy - my heart is completely intertwined with this practice it's every day and all encompassing


Chapters?


Site: the tension of being able to undermine scarcity when space is structured in a way that makes space monetarily scarce, the coop magnetises to the commons the wasted spaces.

https://www.dismalgarden.com/index.php?q=research/schools-without-walls


Labour: Waged labour in australia predicates certain kind of work, the level of care needed to clean up the mess from extractive capital and colonisation is beyond the scope of waged labour, this is why we ship our waste to people who are paid small enough amounts to do the care work.
The artist labour arrangement is profoundly different because the artist is autonomous. They do what they like and make what they like, they generally and in my community's experience do not adhere to the structures of waged labour. If this autonomy comes to be applied with a sense that there is a mess to be cleaned up and artists are uniquely positioned to do this work, a culture of repair is possible.

Through my personal experience with Cooperatives I have witnessed many different ways of organising; one that stand out for me is a Coop in canberra I was apart of where the volunteers were paid in food vouchers this created a real incentive for people to volunteer at the food coop and enabled many lower income people to access high quality food. I wondered at the time about the legality of this and I’m now coming to an answer and understanding the texture of the grey area.

I got this answer from Chat.GTP

Asking:Whats the legality of paying volunteers with vouchers in NSW

In New South Wales, Australia, the legality of being paid with vouchers as a volunteer depends on the specific circumstances and the nature of the volunteer work. According to the Fair Work Act 2009, a person is considered a volunteer if they provide their services freely, without coercion, and without the expectation of payment. However, if a volunteer performs work that would normally be compensated with cash, the organization may be required to provide the volunteer with payment or benefits, even if it is in the form of vouchers or other non-cash rewards. For example, if the volunteer is expected to perform work for a specified number of hours or perform tasks that are integral to the operations of the organization, they may be considered an employee and entitled to payment.
Additionally, organizations that provide volunteers with vouchers or other non-cash rewards must ensure that these vouchers are redeemable for goods or services of equal value to cash. If the vouchers are not transferable, negotiable, or accepted by a broad range of merchants, they may not be considered legal payment for volunteer work. It is important for organizations to carefully consider the legalities of compensating volunteers with vouchers and to seek advice from legal professionals if necessary.
Failure to comply with labor laws and regulations, including minimum wage requirements, can result in legal consequences, including fines and penalties. In conclusion, while the use of vouchers as payment for volunteer work in New South Wales may be legal in some circumstances, it is important to understand the applicable laws and regulations to ensure that you are complying with all relevant requirements.

My take from this is that, the Volunteer can only retain their volunteership if they maintain their autonomy, connecting to autonomous work of the artist above, the coop cannot depend on the volunteer in the same way someone paid, however it can fill its space with the labour of autonomous individuals who work for real goods.

work in Progress

This work is in conjunction with Frontyard Residency and a project I was apart of Errant Forms,
It was an experiment with the Frontyard Library where we have to remove books to make space for new publications, have to decide whether its relevant for Frontayrd to keep and give a platform too.

You can find our structure for Weeding the Library here at https://wiki.frontyardprojects.org/everything/Library_Weeding

This practice looks at where the books go from there, we can recycle them which with Australia's apparent %99 rate of recycling is not a terrible solution and due to its convenience I imagine many books will be recycled. However This experiment looks to localise the death of these objects and turn waste into communal abundance; so I inoculated the books with Oyster mushrooms turning it into food in the first instance then soil, the ultimate commons.