Artistic creation as screen work. Mapping virtual spaces of production

In the contemporary art world, screens are not simply a support for display or a component of installations, they have become a fundamental working environment for artists. Even when digital technologies are not the medium of the artwork itself, any professional creator in the art world could hardly be exempt from different forms of “screen work”. How does the creative process change when artistic creation takes place on a screen, or even in an immersive virtual environment? How does screen work affect the artistic process, from conception to exhibition? If the computer desktop has turned into an atelier, the artist seems to have become a screen worker. Hence, we need to consider artistic practice as being deeply concerned with the precariousness and contradictions that characterise the conditions of labour in contemporary techno-capitalism. Could the creative process be reframed as a specific form of labour in the post-work society in formation? We will examine this hypothesis to understand contemporary screen-based art practice as a form of post-digital “care labour”, having as its object the fragile relationship between human beings and technology. In fact, artists’ screen work, by questioning the way we feel and perceive the intertwining between our embodied existences and digital devices and interfaces, can emotionally and affectively impact on our social environment and well-being. An overview of the distinctive traits of screens as optical devices will support this claim, to show that the challenges of artistic creation can only be tackled by leveraging on the structure of screens themselves as media.