Get a Proper Job

Editorial

Including: James Plumber (Prospect), Simon Crab (Obsolete), Roz Lowrie/Stephen Elson (CFC), Jonathan Jones-Morris (Studio Fish), Peter Molyneux (Bullfrog) on work now, David Lillington on Anna Best and Annie Toop's 'Dalek, First Notion of Terror', BANK in conversation with John Stezaker, the BITPHONE call diagram + reviews of Next5Minutes2 and Pandaemonium.

With the idyll of tele-working and the paperless office a distant hope in the haze, how is the deep office (wo)man-machine interface evolving AT WORK?

Artists are increasingly being sought for their graphic and conceptual skills in new or emergent digital industries. For 9-5, Mute interviewed five artists and designers who work i companies which focus on four important areas in digital media today: games, internet design, multi-media and computer graphics/FX.

We want to look at these new industries to see how they are developing and to see which practical , technical and creative issues arise for those that work within them. What are the tangle of requirements made? How do they impact on and cross-fertilise with other (art) work?

Where are the crossovers between artist and programmer or is there still a difference? How do different companies deal with these problems? Does size matter? Does gender matter? Does educational background matter? Does salary matter?

With the internet hype-motor reaching full speed, what are the feelings regarding the supposed interactive nature of the medium? Is the wired, connected computer perceived as a force for positive social change?

Also relevant in this respect are the mediators. The recruitment companies who shuffle free-lancers around, in some cases managing to make stones bleed as certain areas of the above mentioned industries are growing exponentially and there just aren't enough skilled WORKERS to go round.