| Summary: | This short essay reviews the work of artist Liam Gillick in the context of the experiments in "humanized manufacturing" within a Scandinavian automotive industry. It first outlines Gillick's engagement with this historical experiment, showing how he mobilizes it when interrogating the framework of contemporary art in the context of the turn-of-the-millenium post-utopianism. Specifically, it outlines his notion of "the experimental factory", and relates it to the present situation of laboratorification of the built environment. The essay then investigates the failure of Volvo Car Corporation's humanized production plant in Kalmar, specifically surveying the role of measurement in its demise. It ends by asking where our hopes for more humanized work practices are pinned today.
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