TEXT2SPEECH: with The Alternative School of Economics

Join the ICA Student Forum for the first part of a series of free reading groups called Text2Speech, that respond to the ICA’s programme of exhibitions and events. The initiative provides a platform for the discussion of texts selected by practitioners, academics and student forum members.  Each event will be different in format and provides an opportunity to network with others. Although attractive to students and recent graduates each event is open to the wider public.

This first meeting will be led by The Alternative School of Economics, a project run by artists Ruth Beale and Amy Feneck that uses the practice of self-education to explore economics creatively. Together with the participants, ASE will read Ivan Illich's The Right to Useful Unemployment, especially chapter 1 Disabling Market Intensity which starts with a passage on 'crises', and Chapter 6 The Post-Professional Ethos.

The essay calls for the right to useful unemployment as a way to relocate our own existences outside the market rules. During the reading The Alternative School of Economics will discuss their practice in relation to counter-productivity, alternative education, economic strategies and art practices.

The event has been initiated by Student Forum members Valerio Del Baglivo and Jenn Pavlick.

During this meeting, we discuss The Right to Useful Unemployment  written by Ivan Illich in 1978 (see below).