Towards a fair and equal future of work.
AMAZING INDUSTRIES was founded in 2016 by Brett Wallace as a part-artistic project, a part-research engine focused on critiquing and interrogating the increasingly poor labor record of Amazon. From there, we have expanded our focus into the study of how labor is reshaped by the capitalist mode of production in the 21st century. Our work is completed in collaboration with workers over long-term research projects.
The ideological company is part research engine, think, and artistic practice that aims to demystify the future of work and advocate for a better future for workers.
The company’s recent work has explored the archetypes of mega-corporations and gig economy work platforms. One project turns the Amazon business model inside out to explore its hidden pockets of alienation and strangeness as a signifier of the future of work. Another project explores the ethics and working conditions as technology reshapes industries from home cleaning to trucking. AMAZING INDUSTRIES cares about a future for workers and amplifies workers’ voices.
What we do
Our work ranges from publishing, talks, data collection, workshops, zines, exhibitions, video and audio documentation, photography, and ephemera. There is a sample of our work below.
Our work is focused on workers, labor processes, and the systemic inequalities under the capitalist mode of production. Our work is grounded in social democratic ideas for a more just and equal economy and society.
Research agenda
We are guided by the inquiry of exploring the human experience within capitalism from the ground up as the dominating system of our working lives.
Our research includes collaborative, interdisciplinary, observation-based (and at times data-driven), and socially involved inquiry on the topics of American labor.
Our work is guided by the following inquiries –
- What are the often unseen and obscured material conditions of work, and the socioeconomic shifts impacting workers’ rights, livelihood, and dignity?
- How do we empower and amplify workers’ voices in the struggle within and against capitalism?
- How are new technologies like artificial intelligence reshaping labor and labor processes?
- What is needed to win more fair contracts for workers and transition to more cooperative and egalitarian modes of production?
Key contact: Brett Wallace
info@amazing.industries
A project exploring Amazon’s Mechanical Turk marketplace and workforce through the use of survey data, interviews, photographs, and publishing.
Future of Workers