U+ZINE #2 - Do Corporations have a future? - Plurality University

ARTIFYING CORPORATIONS
Art in corporations tends to be self-congratulatory. But in some cases, when given
autonomy or made participative, it can become an agent of change.
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THE SOCIAL
SENSIBILITY
DEPARTMENT
Alongside the R&D Departments in the Paris region at
Gonesse and in Beijing, Bernard Control have opened
a special R&D Department placing people at the heart
of the creative process. Based on the concept of Social
Sensibility, this innovative R&D Department has
been created in 2012 thanks to the meeting between
Alessandro Rolandi, an artist whose work is focused
on a discipline recently developed in the contemporary
art world named “social practice”, and Guillaume
Bernard, COO of Bernard Controls.
✷ Social Sensibility Department
RESISTANCE DESIGN
de la O design studio imagines a future in which Group
Carso, a Mexican conglomerate which dominates much
of the countries economy, became « augmented » with
technology. «It is logical to assume that productivity
would be a priority for Augmented Carso. In this world,
the physical office will track employees’ behavior using
accelerometers, face recognition cameras, and other
sensors embedded into office accessories. These interconnected
objects will not only observe the employee,
but will even talk amongst themselves regarding each
employee’s performance.»
The designers imagine « gossiping » things intended to
fool the corporate monitoring systems, such as a face
with moving eyes to put in front of the computer’s camera.
✷ De la O, Gossip of Things