This issue of VOLUME looks into the new connections between work and play, how work is becoming more play-like and play is becoming more work-like.

No longer are work and leisure separate realms. These days, playing is work and work demands play. This gamification of the workspace uses points, levels, and feedback, aiming to improve the worker’s engagement, boost productivity, facilitate learning, optimise systems, and more. Through the production of playful work, gamification shapes identities that fit the needs of capitalism: enthusiastic, self-engaged, and self-exploitative subjects.

This issue of ‘Volume’ is divided in two sections: “Powerplay”, in which the renewed relations between work and leisure are explored, and “Playground”, where the spatial implications of this recent focus on gaming are addressed.

This issue of VOLUME looks into the new connections between work and play, how work is becoming more play-like and play is becoming more work-like.

No longer are work and leisure separate realms. These days, playing is work and work demands play. This gamification of the workspace uses points, levels, and feedback, aiming to improve the worker’s engagement, boost productivity, facilitate learning, optimise systems, and more. Through the production of playful work, gamification shapes identities that fit the needs of capitalism: enthusiastic, self-engaged, and self-exploitative subjects.

This issue of ‘Volume’ is divided in two sections: “Powerplay”, in which the renewed relations between work and leisure are explored, and “Playground”, where the spatial implications of this recent focus on gaming are addressed.