Copyright: Christiane and Constanze Schmidt
Constanze Schmidt, Internship Report, 2016, Hamburg
Constanze Schmidt, Praktikumsbericht, 2016, Hamburg
In view of the changing nature of work, young people, above all, will benefit from one ability in the future – to invent professions for themselves. So far, however, many students feel the obligation to fulfil given expectations, and this attitude has dominated their vocational orientation and especially their everyday lives during their internships.
The project Internship Report aimed to develop artistic processes that addressed young people as creators and that could provide them with a space for experiencing agency when choosing a profession. Constanze Schmidt invited ninth-grade students from Europaschule Gymnasium Hamm to research new forms of professional orientation using performative artistic methods. As part of their three-week internships in different workplaces, the young people tried out a series of artistic instructions. They intervened in working environments and tested working conditions by implementing instructions such as “Perform an activity at the workplace that you enjoy doing and that also might please your colleagues.” With actions such as sleeping in a bank, playing the recorder in a shipping company or acting as an interpreter at a dental practice, the teenagers responded to human needs that, in the context of neoliberal education and working relations, are normally neglected. Their designs of individual working realities made visible their agency and presented them as working citizens.
Internship Report culminated in a public performative event at FUNDUS THEATER/Theatre of Research, where Schmidt and the students performed their research results. In exchange with their guests, such as the press officer of the municipal employment services, delegates from professional orientation programmes and workplaces, classmates, artists, teachers and parents, further professions were invented.
Researcher: Constanze Schmidt
Co-researchers: Hamida Ahmadi, Edona Aslani, Mehdi Mahmud Baban, Anna Butenko, Ömer Dede, Mahir Ercan, Bintou Jobe, Jessica Kaufmann, Paraskewi Karafylla, Kevin Komarov, Miguel Wansing Lorrio, Henry Xuanshan Li, Konstantina Manou, Sam Nowroozian, Emre Özerden, Gönül Özkan, Enes Ramovic, Lana Soreni, Pauline Suchin, Nohely Romero Lopez, Marta Uzochukwu, Aleksandra Valchuk
Research participants: Teresa Rosenkrantz, Ulrike Mack, people working at the internship locations, the press officer of the municipal employment services, delegates from vocational orientation programmes and workplaces, classmates, artists, teachers and parents