Thinking What We Are Doing #2: Manifesting the Making (the ILSSA Manifesto Project)

Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA) is a union for reflective creative practice. Established in 2008 as a collaboration between Bridget Elmer and Emily Larned, ILSSA was born out of friendship, feminism, and the engagement of obsolete technology as a personal, political, conceptual, social, and aesthetic strategy.

In 2015, ILSSA published an open call for member manifestos. The project, involving 10 collaborating artists and 9 years, is documented in this reflective contextual essay. Also available are complete sets of ILSSA Manifestos Manifested (containing all 10 manifestos, the original open call, and this essay).