Handle with Care

“Handle with Care” examines the transformation of contemporary labour through a series of apparatuses derived from so-called mouse movers: small devices used to simulate digital presence in remote work environments. The project addresses questions of visibility, presence and control that emerged with the expansion of remote work. Control is both externalised and subverted through technology, a condition that briefly became normalised and now lingers as a fragile residue of a rapidly shifting model of work.

Conceptually, the work relates to Gilbert Simondon’s reflections in “On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects,” (2017 [1958]) which understand technical artefacts not as neutral tools but as actors within social and operational systems. Simondon describes this evolution as a process of concretisation in which multiple functions become integrated within a single machine, increasing its internal coherence and autonomy. Machines thus develop into complex technical entities whose operations emerge from the interaction of interconnected components. In increasingly automated environments, machines are no longer solely operated by humans but begin to interact with and regulate other machines, shifting human agency from direct operation toward supervision. The apparatuses’ oversized and over-engineered construction exposes the mechanisms of productivity, optimisation and control that shape many contemporary working environments, while producing a deceptive sense of stability.

The photographic work traces the material and procedural conditions from which the apparatuses emerge. Photographs of the mouse movers stored in custom-built crates mark the starting point. In contrast, rigorously composed black-and-white photographs of tools and machines reference the visual language of New Objectivity. Rather than illustrating work, the images examine the conditions of production itself and the processes of technical objects come into being.

Positioned at the intersection of sculpture and photography, “Handle with Care” explores the relationship between image, object and process. Design and production of the apparatuses become integral parts of the artistic practice. Work is not narrated but rendered analytically visible as a collective process composed of many interconnected and repetitive actions. The apparatuses appear in an in-between state: neither active nor obsolete, but temporarily decoupled objects in storage that function simultaneously as archive and space of possibility.

Felix Schöppner is part of »Guest Room: Alejandro León Cannock & Delphine Manjard«