Lan­guage in all its forms, from poet­ry to cliché, was a con­tin­u­al source of intrigue for Fischli/Weiss. How to Work Bet­ter (1991) is a man­i­festo com­pris­ing 10 per­sua­sive but emp­ty sen­tences, each with the aim of improv­ing work­place pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and morale: “Know the prob­lem”; “Accept change as inevitable.” Fischli/Weiss plucked these stock phras­es from a fac­to­ry in Thai­land and paint­ed them in large sten­cilled let­ters to cov­er the exte­ri­or of an office block in Oer­likon, Zurich, vis­i­ble on the approach into the city cen­tre by train from Zurich Airport.

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Kars Alfrink

Kars is a designer, researcher and educator focused on emerging technologies, social progress and the built environment.