Posts in arts
Art Apps and Capitalism , with SpekWork Studio and Tough Guy Mountain

#WeMakeMedia

a podcast about how the culture we produce shapes media and how that goes both ways.

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#WeMakeMedia Season 1: making art in the age of the internet

Episode 7

In this episode, I talk with Jonathan Carroll and Cat Bluemke of SpekWork Studio along with their Tough Guy Mountain performance collective member Iain Soder. We talk about how and why to make apps for art going audiences, how precarious employment isn’t just for artists anymore and how capitalism killed the brand-potential of Art.

SpekWork - spek.work/

Tough Guy Mountain - toughguymountain.com/

SpekWork on Instagram - @spekwork

Tough Guy Mountain on Instagram - @toughguymountain

Download Intern Purgatory app

SpekWork’s podcast art/work/play

SpekWork is a studio exploring new political narratives through game design. SpekWork is a collaborative effort of Cat Bluemke, Ben McCarthy, and Jonathan Carroll, post-secondary instructors teaching from the intersections of art, labour, and emerging technologies. SpekWork develops games as immersive critical commentary, taking fundamental research in perception to be the foundation of emergent ideology. Their work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as at venues such as Kunsternes Hus (Norway), the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago).

Tough Guy Mountain is a Toronto-based art collective making interactive performance art about unpaid internships. Working together since 2012, they have created video games, musical theatre, and gallery exhibits in which audiences explore a fantasy world of corporate serfdom. The collective has exhibited their work and performed across Canada and the United States.

They can be contacted at toughguymountain (at) gmail.com

Collaborators and contributors

Chris Walker

Carmen Winther
Claire Wright

Lido Pimienta

Stacie Ant

Mohammad Rezaei

Katie Switzer

Franco Arcieri

Theresa Hopkins

Devin O’Brien 

Jean-Luc Lindsay

Maddy Matthews

Michelle Cieloszczyk

Joy Xiang

Halloway Jones

Thomas Kim

Iain Soder

Jonathan Carroll

Cat Bluemke

Sam Roberts

Cale Weir 

Atleigh Homma 

Jessica Brown

William Kasurak

Liz Johnston

Alisson Escobar

Inez Genereux

Sabine Spare

Chloe Sullivan

Ben McCarthy

Sophia Katz

Rory MacLellan


Show notes:

I have failed to complete my show notes mission for this episode :( Will complete them once vortex in time opens up providing me the time to do so! Apologies !