I am sitting in a café, Filtro, in The Hague. I set my laptop on a table to work after ordering a cup of coffee, and my eyes roll around for the WiFi password. I am connected to the power grid through the umbilical cord of chargers. I wear a pair of headphones and shuffle play songs from my playlist. By giving up one of my senses, I express the will to isolate myself. The informal spaces of nomadic work transform the earth into “a permanent office where we can work anywhere and anytime: airports, cafes, and even in bed.”⁽¹⁹⁾ A work environment in our modern society has shaped by physical and mental mobility, and informality. According to Gielen, informality in the workplace is important for autonomous growth.⁽²⁰⁾ In a performative project, ‘Mobile Buro’, an Austrian architect Hans Hollein explored the new system of labour by an increasingly mobilised work environment where would collapse into our free time with the spread of digital devices. Hollein describes his work as a portable home. In the words of Andreas Rumpfhuber, the author of The Design of Scarcity: “The pneumatic bubble is an architectural prototype of a new paradigm of a creative entrepreneurial subject,[…]It produces an insular indoor climate in which the worker is immersed and thus, no matter where, becomes active, and is only then able to work.”⁽²¹⁾ Thanks to the invention of Hollein’s work, the office knows work has crossed boundaries.

(Notification sound) “Sorry for the last minute change.”

Three hours before I meet with O for the interview, I receive a message from him. There are unexpected fires at work, so we have to change plans and reschedule for a new date. Freelance designers are exposed to the urgent siren call and always expected to be available. Apparently, O is himself a real-life boss who controls and manages the work, while his administration office is all on a phone device. No formal space is shared with colleagues and relationships are mainly with an abstract entity. Freelance designers are always available to be ‘plugged in’ anywhere and any time. With digital devices, work has become a never-ending story in our lives. Email has become our virtual administrative office, tasks carried out through mobile devices. In the liquid work environment, where the public and the private intertwine, such a solid workplace might be a dreamy paradise.

‘Inbox Zero’ is an email system developed by Merlin Mann, who has expertise on productivity. It is aimed at keeping the inbox empty and yes, the system used among big companies and even grew into a broader philosophy of productivity. Emptying email in our inbox becomes a worthy task. But in reality, self-employed workers find themselves imprisoned into an ever-growing self-administration. The freedom offered by the unpredictable task becomes a trap where the freelance designer must restlessly work. Work remain as actuality and potentiality. We mentally run through our tasks, potential works while we rest and brainstorm while we shampoo in the shower. With our beloved digital devices, we can work anywhere and immaterial labour has become a constant in our lives. Creative labour has been understood as the concept of immaterial labour that produces cultural value that is related to the creative world. However, the idea that a single device is all we need to perform all types of tasks still remains an illusion. “Is that an office in your pocket?”⁽²²⁾