Workers’ fingers

A thumb in a PDF: it's not supposed to be there but that doesn't make it a mistake

Workers' fingers is about willfully keeping fingers and thumbs in scanned PDFs of library books as an everyday act of resistance.

For the Spring Party, I wanted to make my fingers visible live like they are on the page so I dunked them in thick black ink, knuckle deep. The drippy fingers protest the institutional invisibilising of labour, especially with regard to digitising where the worker’s body has been decoupled from the final product, a perfect image.

Over the last few years, there has been an increased demand for digitising resources due to covid. Despite additional pressure on workers, the university is rolling out unnecessary and harmful job cuts. Workers’ Fingers rejects the disposability of workers by subverting a ‘mistake’ into a gesture of defiance.

Workers’fingers is published by Sticky Fingers in their beautiful publication FDBNHLLLTTFPLAGIARISM. I was invited to read at the Spring Party 14 April 2022 at Vogue Fabrics London.