This month BrainDeadAir casts an unfaltering eye on the growing underground jobs market for bodily rentals.

In today's troubled economic climate, life is tough for working families. More and more people are turning to unconventional measures to supplement their income. Some people take on part time work in shops and bars. Some people do additional work from home performing tasks such as data entry and drug dealing. And BrainDeadAir can reveal that a record number of people in Britain today are earning additional income by renting out their body parts.

Mac Stamperson was hired at a rate of £17.80 per hour, by an eccentric billionaire playboy who wanted to use his forearm as a paperweight. A media tycoon and retired iconoclast employed Sandra Videohat to keep her right foot within a distance of 0.3 metres of his at all times. And within the wider public, attitudes are becoming increasingly laid back - we certainly seem to have come a long way since the scandal of Lord Superdrug and the seventeen pensioners he paid to sit on his feet several times a day.

Stamperson claims he first started to explore alternative occupations when an aristocratic family offered him £375 to turn up and stand outside their home watching them carrying out everyday tasks such as housework and domestic abuse. He doesn't mind the work, in fact he much prefers it to his day job as the chief executive of a global wet-wipe and sanitary liquids corporation.

So, what does the future hold for Britain's workforce? A little more standing, a bit more sitting and a hell of a lot more hanging around the place by the look of it.

Neil Thompoke was polishing the grave of his late grandfather when he was approached to design the new extension on the Tate Modern. As part of an innovative scheme to get people involved in the arts, the Council for Socioculturale Change pioneered the project. The Council award prestigious artistic contracts to people with little to no experience, or indeed interest, in the fields in question. Sound crazy, you might be forgiven for thinking so (not by BrainDeadAir of course - you fucking elitist swine), but projects carried out within the programme have so far been met with resounding nods of approval on the parts of both obscure unemployed critics and the relatives of those involved.

The former Food Court Supervisor who went on to direct the English National Opera's recent production of Rising Damp - A Ballet for the Peopel, Patrick Mickeymac certainly isn't complaining, as he cheerfully explained to our Tammy Pikkles over a saucer of milk at EatLikeTheAnimals' new gastrobistro on the South Bank:

"Well to be honest I preferred the people I worked with at the shopping centre but now I don't have to clean up either baby sick or pensioner's shit, although I did once have to hold Esther Rantzen's hand while she vomited in the toilets at the Old Vic after watching a particularly graphic portrayal of pigeon circumcision as part of a hard hitting community drama piece".

Of course there are still those who consider allowing the working classes to come within a country mile of the high arts utter folly, but it seems we'd better get used to it. Rumour has it next year's senior photography curator at the V&A is going to be recruited by placing a golden ticket in a random pasty sold through a branch of Greggs the bakers in a provincial town...

Birmingham's Human Puree Gallery is playing host to a controversial installation in which the skins of donated bodies are hung from the ceiling. The skins are expected to change considerably as the exhibition carries on, drying out and perhaps even rotting progressively, hence the title Living Dead. Curators hope that the fact that the pieces change over time will encourage repeat visits from the same people - and it will, from this reporter anyway (one guy had a racially offensive tattoo and I can't wait to see what's going to happen to it!).

Members of the public are invited to interact with the skins using the tools provided, which include rolling pins, pitchforks and electric toothbrushes. Several of the pieces have already sold to prominent collectors, one of whom (we promised not to disclose his identity) confessed to us that he wasn't looking forward to trying to convince his wife that the skin would make an excellent addition to their new bedroom suite.

The gallery is playing down a recent news story according to which one or more foxes gained access to the venue and managed to chew off the legs of one of the minor exhibits. The artist, who is known only as Gent7, is no stranger to the headlines, having been the subject of much public discussion following a previous performance art event during which he salivated on the photograph of a grieving widow for several hours while she knitted him a hat the colour of her late husband's favourite socks.

This week on braindeadair we're awarding special attention to the most talked about new community cultural engagement centre, GuGa. Opened last year amid much controversy due to the centre's reported molestation policy, the centre has certainly not been a stranger to the headlines. Director of GuGa, James Quiche wasted no time on the project, opening the centre before building work had even begun:

"I really wanted to hit the ground jogging on this. People kept saying to me things like 'you can't run a pottery class from a bus shelter', and you really want to turn round and say 'are you questioning my belief in the fucking arts?' but unfortunately you have to learn to bite your tongue to keep the investors onside. Those are the times when you really find out the strength of your commitment to a project, you know, the choice is clear: do you admit defeat, go home and wait for mum to get back, or do you dust yourself off, pick up a spatula, and get on with it?"

For James the choice was indeed clear, he went home. Luckily his mother had the vision to help him realise his dream and today the pair are joint directors for the centre, which was recently voted Most Engaging Interior Decoration in a Public Space by readers of Baaaa Magazine.