Pervasive Labour Union

Welcome to the 12th issue of the Pervasive Labour Union Zine, the first regular issue to come out under the new name. As such, and to bridge with the last issue to come out with the old name, whose theme was Immateriality, the theme of the current issue is Pervasiveness. On the call for submissions we wrote:

Pervasive here refers also to the seemingly non-existing boundaries of this reality - an all-encompassing body where to disconnect means either great privilege or a fall into oblivion. With this issue, we hope to explore the continuities and disruptions afforded by pervasive computing: Which players stand to gain the most and what exactly are they gaining? Are there any new players? In which new (and old) ways can pervasive labour take form? Which new layers does pervasive data collection add to the already blurred boundaries between work and leisure? By continuing and expanding the neoliberal transfer of (economical, social, physical, etc) survival responsibilities to the individual, how does pervasive computing affect narratives of community building and organization? How to deconstruct efficiency within this context? What counts as counter-movement within the context of pervasive efficiency? And last, but not least: How pervasive is this reality?

As a response to this, we got a range of submissions that engage with various levels of what pervasive can mean within this context.
Oana Clitan's contribution playfully mixes the aesthetics of work and play, thus underlining the informality adjacent to pervasive forms of labour.
Lukas Engelhardt’s visual poem reflects on the pervasiveness of authorship of digital images via the "personal" experience of the watermark.
Olivier Auber's first contribution is an open letter to YannLeCun, Head of Research in Artificial Intelligence at Facebook, wherein Auber expounds the concerns that led him to leave Facebook, namely, the loss of control over one’s own communications. Auber’s second contribution is an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg; here, Auber takes Zuckerberg on his resolutions for 2018 to present him with the amount of money owed by Facebook for his hours spent there, as a form of exchange for Facebook’s lack of "interoperability of personal data". Here, you will also be able to find a link to generate your own Facebook invoice.
On his contribution, Lucas Domínguez Rubio traces the possibilities offered by science fiction and, more specifically, cyberpunk literature, to reflect on the infrastructural opaqueness of neoliberal control.
Lucia Dossin’s contribution talks to us in jest about the Sisyphean task of infinite scrolls and the cycle of production on corporate social networking platforms.
On this issue, you will be able to enjoy the first Pervasive Labour Union memes! Also, and because this is an issue of many "firsts", the Letter to the Editors section was inaugurated with the concerns of a reader regarding our previous special issue, edited by Silvio Lorusso, "The Entreprecariat".
And if you want to find out how to get a 1 euro tax deduction, Niek Hilkmann’s contribution will surely help you out!

Contributions by:
C/R, Lucas Domínguez Rubio, Lucia Dossin, Lukas Engelhardt, Mathijs van Oosterhoudt, Niek Hilkmann, Oana Clitan, Olivier Auber

All contributions to the zine, unless otherwise specified, are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3¹.

Exceptions:
Olivier Auber's contributions are licensed under the Free Art License².