When it comes to the issue of participation in the fields of labour and culture, it often becomes simplified in the following equation: participation = more work opportunities = less social exclusion = broader democratization of society. However, as we view the effects of Participatory Information Technology in the process of cultural creation, we cannot help but wonder, does participation really generate collectivity and social change? Or is it an advertising slogan for the imposition of free labour and the generation of capital?

Beginning with these questions, this presentation deals with the discourse created by PIT Art in regard to immaterial labour. Through specific cases of contemporary artworks that call for the collaboration of the public in the creative process using PIT, different approaches come to the fore: from a utopian vision of information society, to an adverse critique of capitalism and the exploitation procedures of capital production.