The Efficiency of Pantone 17-4402

Spencer Kromberg

HD Photofilm 1 min

Visualisation of a slow start into a day in home office. Repeating tasks and background noise grow rapidly into a wave of overstimulation and unchallenged mind. Home office was meant to reduce work related stress, break constant structures of performative presence; instead more and more focus falls on the passing of time, upcoming deadlines and continuous force to be productive. Imprisoned in a loop, the boundaries between work and freetime flow into one another, drowning the colours of daily life slowly in monotone grey.

The making of The Efficiency of Pantone 17-4402

For this project there was no inspiration. I brainstormed what I associate with corporate work and wanted to express my boredom when thinking about the modern work-life-balance, especially now since home-office became a trend during covid times.

What really bothers me about corporate work is the monotony, looping daily life and the abolition of homely safe spaces from work due to constant availability through phones and messaging. With all this in mind I interviewed my cousin about her work as a bank employee and what changes about her life since starting her career. She told me about “work tunnel vision”, getting into the zone of work that everything around her disappears, skipping breaks because of unfinished tasks and having to juggle priorities between seeing her friends or her boyfriend on weekends as she’s too exhausted after work on weekdays.

She described how her home-office days usually go and based on her description and input I gathered ideas to create scenes that capture the inner dread I feel when thinking about general office jobs. Another thing that I noticed in the midst of rising corporate jobs is the obsession with time and its “management”, meaning to hustle is the only time well spent. Nowadays people seem to have pride in working themselves into the ground, having no time for friends, family or oneself to enjoy hobbies is trendy and aspirational while taking time off to relax is seen as “lazy”. If you pick up a new hobby it is a new opportunity to monetize it or it is a waste of time you could spend hustling for your future success. Everything needs to be a business. Bigger. Better. Faster. More efficient. You are not a person, you are a brand! How come you have not made 50K a month yet with your business started in college? Life is short! Time is running out! You are a failure if you do not hustle away your teenage years and twenties! YOU ARE BEHIND!

After constructing a general idea of what I wanted the message and video to be about I jotted down potential locations representing the “on the clock” feeling home-office inflicts, and audio files I would need. Then I drew a storyboard to plan out my video.

I remember when home-office was first introduced, people seemed to be happier to be able to spend more time with their loved ones. This moment of peace is what I had in mind when starting the video, a slow morning easing into work mode. With every picture another sound gets added; on their own, the sounds are tolerable but being continuously surrounded by noise gets overwhelming after a while. By the end of the video all colour turns a neutral grey shade which displays the monotony of working the same routine on a daily basis draining oneself from all joy and motivation.

The modern world is littered with hustle culture and forced upon efficiency to the point that taking a break to breathe feels like failing. This urgent feeling is represented by different timestamps and clocks flashing at some point in the video and picking up speed by the end. It also symbolises that time is always at the back of one’s mind, either the feeling of wasting one's time or the counting minutes of an approaching deadline.