Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing
In time for the holidays Captain Swing returns from past worker uprisings in a consciousness-raising custom for the age of A.I. Capitalism. A folk opera, based on worker testimonies and interviews with union organisers, written and produced collectively by Post Workers Theatre and Infinite Opera.
Autohoodening reimagines this custom for the age of automation, updating its design, delivery and social commentary and asks how might the singing, dancing and physical humour parody and draw attention to the horrifying working conditions hidden behind consumer-facing infrastructure and the ease of ‘one-click’ delivery?
Developed online during the pandemic from summer 2020 to summer 2021. Filmed at Vivid Projects by Andy Willsher and Iain Armstrong. Released December 2021.
As part of the wider Autohoodening project begun in 2019, this is a collaborative response to a midwinter custom dating back over 200 years. Hoodening was originally performed by farm labourers in East Kent who paraded with a horse effigy in a carnivalesque satire of their working reality during the fallow season of winter.
Under constant surveillance and the threat of dismissal, pickers and packers in Amazon’s fulfilment centres work to their physical limits to keep up with algorithmically regulated performance targets. They risk their health and continue to struggle for basic employment rights, while Jeff Bezos on the other hand, has seen his personal wealth almost double to over $200 BN dollars during the pandemic.
Captain Swing, the fictional face of worker dissent in the great English agricultural uprising of 1830, is resurrected to confront the horrors of working as a seasonal associate in an Amazon fulfilment centre. Will Swing help the workers to overcome Alexis the evil scanner, a symbol of Amazon’s regime of technological discipline?
It really is time to think before you click
Film recorded on Zoom, edited by Roxanne Korda & Nick Mortimer with original music by Dani Blanco and Infinite Opera. Based on worker testimonies gathered from online forums and interviews with union reps from GMB.
