The Promise of Total Automation

The exhibition "The Promise of Total Automation" investigated our relationship to a world of machines, technological objects, and electronic devices. The prospect of a fully automated future - while acutely reshaping the notions of work, production, and value creation - also feeds emancipaotry scenarios ultimately leading to the end of labour. Total automation is upon us but its liberating promise yet to be. This book presents a survey of the literature on that story. It tracks its fabric, layers, and meditations, and unfolds a bibliography and chronology of automation and of its promises.