Venture Labor| Entrepreneurial Subjects: Venturing from Alley to Valley

Abstract

In Venture Labor, Neff describes an entrepreneurial subjectivity in which creative workers focus on presenting a portfolio of work to potential employers, positioning themselves not as employees of a company, but as creators of a particular voice or style. In my book, Status Update, I examine the logical outgrowths of the practices examined in Venture Labor, three self-presentation techniques aimed at attracting attention—microcelebrity, self-branding, and live streaming—all representing the leading edge of social media practice. In Status Update, I show how presenting the self became a form of labor that extends venture labor to formulating, packaging, and presenting the self.