Deformative Work

In Hannah Arendt’s distinction between work and labor, work refers to what one does in daily life; while labor concerns their role within the larger economy. Deformative Work proposes an alternative by considering the physical body as an archive of the difference between work and labor. The human motor both activates and is activated by tools and devices of labor. As extensions of each other, the opposing effects between the anatomical body and the apparatuses of work/labor lead to abrasion, weariness, and ultimately aesthetic transformations.