Olivia Plender: Rise Early, Be Industrious, 2016

exhibition catalogue/artist’s book, published by Sternberg Press

Rise Early, Be Industrious traces connections between several of my projects, which focus on historical and contemporary forms of education and its relation to the so-called Protestant work ethic, as famously described by sociologist Max Weber. Drawing on social history, the book as a whole and the projects described explore different educational models as they emerged over time, specifically in the industrial and post-industrial eras – starting with the religious pulpit and ranging from world fairs to television and Google. The works look at opposing ideas about the purpose of education, training for the workplace versus education as an emancipatory practice. With a strong architectural dimensions – involving the fabrication of platforms and models and a deliberate emphasis on play and game-like structures – many of the projects invite visitors to participate and ‘perform’, while considering how social roles and models of society have been constructed over the last few hundred years.

Image sections are interspersed with texts – contributed by Maeve Connolly, Angus Cameron, Lars Bang Larsen and Tirdad Zolghadr – archival material, an interview, as well as an extended annotated index. Edited by Olivia Plender and Gerrie van Noord.