“We’re not treated as human beings. We’re not even treated as robots. We’re treated as part of the data stream.”
anonymous Amazon ex-worker in Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos, dir. James Jacoby, produced by PBS, 2020
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In December 2018, I hired myself for a short time at the Amazon fulfillment center in Sady near Poznań to see from the inside how one of the biggest companies in the world operates on a micro scale. In this way, I started working on the AMZN project, which main aim is to shed light on the entire functioning of this internet giant: from the materiality of huge warehouses, to working conditions, to specific corporate culture and versatility, to visions of the future, created by the company management.
How can we relate to them and can we even take our future back from the hands of the world's wealthiest people? How can we support people fighting for workers' rights and, in a broader perspective, equality and social justice? Amazon is just an example, albeit an extremely powerful and clear one, of what our whole reality may soon look like. Or how it already looks: hidden behind a smooth online store interface and an almost windowless warehouse walls. Dressed in exciting technological metaphors, hiding the exploitation and inequality of wealth, knowledge and influence.
The website you are on has been conceived as a regularly updated and ever-expanding online archive. It collects scattered scraps of information that make up the overall picture of Amazon. Much has already been said and written about it, but there was no single place where you can get to know a wide range of material in this way.
The content on this site is arranged randomly, just like products in Amazon fulfillment centers. There is no single linear way to browse it – every time you visit this website you discover a new set of information. All materials are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Once you have reached the "Registry" tab, you can download them to your computer for further use, both online and offline.
AMZN.vnlab.org was created in the vnLab Interactive Narratives Studio at the Film School in Łódź, under the supervision of studio managers Katarzyna Boratyn and Krzysztof Pijarski and in close cooperation with Rytm Digital studio (Paweł Brzeziński / Roman Kühl), which developed the graphic design and took care of the programming.
Special thanks:
OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza labor union
NZZZ Solidarność Pracowników Amazon Polska labor union
Biennale Warszawa
Jan Zygmuntowski
Krzysztof Pijarski
Tytus Szabelski-Różniak
Born in 1991, photographer and visual artist. Graduated journalism and social communication on Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, and photography at the University of Art in Poznań, where he earned his PhD in art. He worked with Center of Contemporary Art in Toruń, Miłość Gallery in Toruń and Krytyka Polityczna magazine (Political Critique).
Finalist of Polish and international contests for best art master’s diploma work (e.g The Esteemed Graduates of Polish Academies of Fine Arts’ 2016 in Gdańsk, Poland, and StartPoint Prize 2016 in Prague, Czech Republic). Laureate of Konrad Pustoła memory scholarship for socially engaged photographer (2017), participant of Parallel – European Photo Based Platform, program dedicated to young photographers and curators (2019–2020). Awarded with Visegrad Fund Sound and Visual Arts Residency (Trafó Galery, Budapest, 2021) and Biennale Warszawa residency (2020).
Former editor of Magenta, online magazine dedicated to contemporary photography, Postmedium art academic journal and Central-Eastern European art magazine BLOK. Currently works at Visual Narratives Laboratory at Łódź Film School.
Colophon
| Author | Tytus Szabelski-Różniak |
| Producer | Szkoła Filmowa w Łodzi |
| Executive Producer | Krzysztof Franek |
| Creative Producer | Katarzyna Boratyn / Krzysztof Pijarski |
| UX/UI & programming | Rytm Digital |
Project financed under the "Regional Initiative of Excellence" programme of the Minister of Science and Higher Education in 2019-2022, project no. 023/RID/2018/19, amount of funding PLN 11.865.100
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