The Visual Future
In our world, the precarious condition that northern society has been increasingly involved in owes most of its significance to a rapidly accelerating trend of Immaterial Labor. Before the 1790’s, for a business to move from one area to another, they had to move ‘material’, from one place to the other. Today, large businesses can be operated through Immaterial relationships such as “Post-national trade regulations, new forms of banking and abstract financialization, currency speculations driven by computer algorithms.” (Craig Berggold, 2014) This means that companies no longer need as many physical bodies or work spaces in order to get their work done. Because of this 'immaterial' trend in labor, companies are becoming more and more inclined to conduct their work through, and in, virtual spaces. Could this trend in capitalism give birth to an entirely virtual world, and permanently implement an economy fueled by immaterial labor? Modern technology may not be as far from this virtual reality as you may think.
This word cloud, made from Starbucks Canada's Our Heritage page, shows how important immaterial processes, such as emotions and feelings, are to billion dollar companies. Some of the biggest words on the cloud are 'service' and 'experience'. Because of Starbucks' "superior" service, they are able to charge more money for their product than Tim Hortons can.
In industrial production, the value of goods was traditionally determined by the relationship between the value of working time and the cost of capital. Today, the use of 10 emotions and ‘affect’ are manufactured to sell things—ideas, emotions and feelings are immaterial processes that create value (Lazzarato 1996; Marazzi 1999; Virno 2004a)
Human Media Labs at Queen’s university is one of Canada’s premier multidisciplinary media laboratories. Many of their projects and inventions blur the lines between ‘material’ and ‘immaterial’, and they are one of the leaders in immaterial technologies that change user's visual experiences. Potentially, their holographic technology could be used in fully automated stores, in order to give the consumer the visual and emotional experience of customer service. They could be placed behind the counters at Mcdonalds, or behind the cash at retail outlets. And the person operating the hologram would never have to leave their home. With technologies like this becoming more and more advanced, our society gets closer and closer to a completely immaterial and virtual society, as well as a fully precarious society.
Human Media Labs
Separating body from work
Earnest Cline's 2012 book Ready Player One Depicts a world in which nearly all humans spend most their time plugged into a virtual, haptic-powered, reality, called The Oasis. In this virtual reality, people are instantly connected to each other from all over the world, appearing to others as customized avatars, rather than as themselves. Powerful filters are able to manipulate appearance, language, and emotion to the point that people can customize themselves into anyone they choose. Many people have jobs and go to school in The Oasis, so much so, that the Oasis’ virtual currency has become the strongest currency in the world.
Well on Our Way
The HTC Vive is currently the worlds most advanced virtual reality system available at a consumer level. The HTC Vive is a head mounted virtual reality device which uses a gyroscope, as well as radar tracking, to track the movements of a person's head and simulate a virtual world. The goggles are paired with two controllers which are also tracked. These controllers allow for the user to interact with the virtual world.
Haptics
Being able to touch a virtual world is cool, but it being able to touch you back is even better. With advancing haptic-feedback technologies, people will eventually be able to virtually transport themselves into virtual space. They will be fully immersed.
Sources
Cline, Ernest. Ready Player One. New York: Crown Publishers, 2011. Print.
Forster, E M, and Rod Mengham. The Machine Stops and Other Stories. London: André Deutsch, 1997. Print.
Human Media Lab "TeleHuman: Life-size hologram-like telepods revolutionize videoconferencing". Online video Clip. Youtube. Youtube, may, 1, 2012. February 23 2017.
Engadget. "HTC Vive in 2017: Hands-On." YouTube. YouTube, 07 Jan. 2017. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.
Jacksepticeye. "I NEED MY MANAGER | Job Simulator #2 (HTC Vive Virtual Reality)."YouTube. YouTube, 09 Apr. 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2017
Craig Berggold. Precarious Life, Work and Culture. September 2014. Queens Univsersity. March 25 2016.
Marazzi, Christian. 1999 (2011). Capital and Affects: The Politics of the Language Economy. Trans. by Giuseppina Mecchia. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e)/Foreign Agents.
Lazzarato, Maurizio. 1996. “Immaterial Labour.” In Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics. Edited by Michael Hardt and Paolo Virno. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press: 132-146.