A is for arrested. E is for envelope.

A stationary stationery order sits on our shared office table. Responsibility for its future progress in the institutional system of procurement is presently undetermined. An inert and passive Bartleby, the half completed order form prefers to stay right where it is - amongst us and between us as a talisman of passive resistance. At some point in the not very distant future we will run out of ink for the printer, and paper for the letters we print on that machine, and envelopes for those letters we are required to send to students telling them they’ve missed another deadline and are off the course.

Prior to that future point of systemic breakdown someone in the office will have to act, or not, to maintain the system.

Human agency is required. The success of the institutional system is dependent on someone deciding to act. Ultimately the potential and real consequences of inactivity will compel someone to grasp the nettle. Feeling the sting of that compulsion someone will justify their actions in everyday terms: ‘just doing my/your/somebody’s job’. Collapse will be averted. There will be no sense of success though. Failure will be felt: the failure to not see something through to its unknown end.



Aims Outcomes

To give up no holder
To put off no folder
To let go no string
To walk out no binder
To sit back no envelope
To stay off no glue stick
To ignore no bands
To deny no rulers
To defer no staples
To back down no tippex
To withdraw no marker
To await no files
To not do no pens
To not not no punch
To let the phone ring no 5 star telephone sachetwipes
Off the hook no job