INT. A COOL SEMI SHADY COVERED DESK AREA. MORNING.

RACHEL works in corporate dress at a traditional desk, just for the day. Above her, there is a Wifi Boost Cloud that has manifested itself into a the shape of a keychain password: bl315ur3 1sl4nd. it is providing her with dappled shade.

ETG

(quietly. seems to be rehearsing to himself)

With a stunning brand new design and supporting functions dedicated to a brand new business concept: business would become a way of life here… We can provide you with first class top quality business operation facilities, an environment perfect in people oriented supporting business services as well as an expert operational team assigned by an estate management company of international reputation. All these conditions bring not only soothing business experience to each owner enterprise but also supreme honour and dignity. We promise to bring to your enterprise new vigour and tremendous development opportunities. In the midst of economic globalisation, the largest international business platform is about to set sail from here.

MD

Sleep well at any time in Tempur Memory Mesh hammocks. Located in and around the many pavilions and custom parabolic sound fields allow each contributor to select the volume in order to follow the group discussion or tune out in order to focus on independent work time.

EXT: A LARGER BREAKOUT ISLAND HAS BEEN CREATED. AFTERNOON.

The group is gathered sitting on the bank of the Peach Blossom Spring, some of them dipping their glasses in to drink sporadically, most dressed for business and sitting on breakout seating holding tablets.

RACHEL

Whilst on the island we don’t advices breaks, and needless to say this isn’t even necessary to enforce, as all our residents have naturally begun to take the approach that a break insinuates a non-productive time. Our residents acknowledge that Bleisure is a lifestyle and half-work almost continually.

MORRIS nods, and BELLAMY frowns slightly, not sure he agrees.

HAMMOND

… it is also true that everybody does not always agree with the details of these arrangements

GUEST

That is understood, and I agree with it!

RACHEL

Right, and as a result, there’s no restrictions on where, and more importantly, when a person can move in and out of group and independent work or leisure…

BELLAMY ’s face eases at this information

…and such distinctions no longer mean anything.

CONFUCIOUS looks off into the middle distance to consider this.

It is commonplace to be talking with someone in a thoroughly enjoyable and productive conversation, and when they no longer enjoy it or find it relevant to their needs they move on, and others may come and fill their place. This makes the residents of Bleisure island a perfect public. They assemble not when they are told to, or for particular purposes, but when it is enjoyable and useful to everyone, just as you are all here now.*

At this point can I draw your attention to the notion of the archipelago- the group of islands- as the structural makeup of the island is such that it can divide off and rejoin, just as its residents do. The Breakout Islands I mentioned earlier, which some of you will have tried, are not defined and so as the core of any group meeting or conversation can mutate, so can the core elements of the construction of the island, in an organic modular fashion.  It is impossible for a person to breakout from the mainland while another needs the space, as personal space is measured via a radial aura, again based on the needs and activities of the individual, which have been arrived on instinctively, unlike the previous ergonomic hard and fast rules of the design of workspaces elsewhere, this acknowledges true flexibility and multifunction.

MD

Bleisure Island and its residents are harmonious and productive in their group and individual configurations. The essence of the island is not a rigid composition but an always adapting model, in constant mutation and evolution. Bleisure Island has been proven to reduce fomo** by keeping you connected, relaxed, hard at work, and also ensures you are in a tropical idyllic location.

HAMMOND

…the production of what used to be called art, but which has no name amongst us now, because it has become a necessary part of the labour of each man who produces.

RACHEL

so what we have here is a modern co-working creative agency, peopled by freelancers or artists, as we could call ourselves… So let’s hear about some of your work-life dilemmas and what you need from a Bleisure Island?

GAVIN

I’m working on the biggest project I’ve ever worked on. It’s a huge collaborative effort spanning five countries and over one hundred engineers and I’m part of the team that’s running the whole thing. Do I text them and say, “Can’t make meeting today, got to go to the farmers’ market”?

JESSICA

Oh, I do, all the time!

RACHEL

That’s a classic dilemma. Hopefully you can have a bit of rest here while you work.

NEIL GAIMAN

a career in the arts is sometimes like putting messages in bottles on a desert island and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you.****

LAO TZU

(with the satisfied gravitas of a person destined to say only one thing)

In work, do what you enjoy…

HAMMOND

….Thou shalt work in order to live happily… We are all bent on the same enterprise, making the most of our lives.

CONFUCIUS

(humble but a little pleased to have summarised better than LAO TZU)

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

HAMMOND

The art or work-pleasure, as one ought to call it, of which I am now speaking, sprung up almost spontaneously it seems, from a kind of instinct amongst people, no longer desperately driven to painful and terrible overwork…

RACHEL

The moment it feels like work, it’s not bleisure. If you are interested in the work, you will continue to do it – and by the way the distractions are part of it – they’ll turn out to be as just as useful as the business.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

*

The reader referring to The Cast list might notice that we are missing MD and WORKERS

**

Fear of missing out.

***

Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012.