Labor[labour] 

Labor[labour] will focus on how culture views and values manual (woman[ual]) labor. The topic implicates issues of gender, power, and language as significant elements in the history of women's labor, from childbirth to the workplace. This topic addresses the question of how women will move from the traditional work place to the communication frontiers and through its physical form. The piece will also question both the traditional and new technologies.

Professor Goggin will produce a CD-ROM to work in conjunction with a book made with traditional metal type printing. Her project employs these seemingly opposed mediums to explore the topic of labor, defined here as physical or mental exertion, work, or toil. The form is integral to its content, and critically relevant to the ongoing discussion of how artists of the future will deal with the book format.

The artwork will have a CD-ROM mounted within the book. The reader/user must make this choice: to explore the book or the CD-ROM separately or read the book in conjunction with the disk. The multimedia portion will be programmed to respond to the turning of the book pages. In this way, the piece will interact with itself as well as with the viewer. An important aspect of this piece is that the verbal/visual narrative is structured to be read both in a hand held book and on a personal computer screen.

Using the new technologies to build on past technological history opens many possibilities to challenge the authority of reading, question the habits of legibility, and break through the formal limitations of traditional information methoddologies. Professor Goggin will develop a broader knowledge of communicaton methods for book publication. This project features an innovative combining of traditional and new technologies that utilize the unique capabilities of this university.