Theory. Utopia. Empathy. Ephemeral arts – EST. 1990 – ATHENS LONDON NEW YORK

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theory

Theory

Sociologists Propose Shift to “Neuroecosocial” Paradigm of Mental Health

A recent article published in Theory, Culture & Society proposes a “neuroecosocial” approach to understanding mental health. Sociologist Nikolas Rose of King’s College London, previously interviewed by Mad in America, and co-authors Rasmus Birk and Nick Manning explore alternative ways to understand the link between personal “lived experience” and things like “social determinants of health.” They look to an integrative theory that could go beyond a reductionistic focus on brains, toward understanding people’s experience in… …

Theory

David Graeber – After the Pandemic, We Can’t Go Back to Sleep

In an essay penned shortly before his death, David Graeber argued that post-pandemic, we can’t slip back into a reality where the way our society is organized — to serve every whim of a small handful of rich people while debasing and degrading the vast majority of us — is seen as sensible or reasonable. Before he tragically died at the untimely age of fifty-one in September 2020, the well… …

Theory

David Graeber – Μετά την πανδημία, μην πέσουμε ξανά για ύπνο.

Σε αυτό το σύντομο δοκίμιο που γράφτηκε λίγο πριν από τον ξαφνικό θάνατό του, το Σεπτέμβριο του 2020, ο 59χρονος καταξιωμένος ανθρωπολόγος και δραστήριος αναρχικός David Graeber υποστήριξε ότι μετά την πανδημία, δεν πρέπει να επιστρέψουμε ξανά σε μια πραγματικότητα στην οποία θεωρείται λογικό η κοινωνία μας να είναι οργανωμένη με έναν τρόπο που εξυπηρετεί την κάθε ιδιοτροπία μιας μικρής χούφτας πλούσιων, ενώ απαξιώνει και ταπεινώνει εμάς, τη συντριπτική πλειοψηφία… …

Theory

Buddhism and Anarchism: Exploring the Unlikely Compatibility of Two Distinct Traditions

In the summer of 2018 I was at a movie night event with newly acquainted classmates from grad school. We were all still getting to know each other and one of them asked me something about my personal beliefs. I don’t remember the details but I remember admitting I was a Buddhist anarchist. I think the reason I put it in those terms had to do with the context of… …

Theory

Wittgenstein, Artificial Intelligence and the Emergence of Empathy

Written by Carlos E. Perez– author of Artificial Intuition and the Deep Learning Playbook — Underneath the shallow surface of the nature vs nurture debate is the difference between descriptive formulaic models versus enactivist generative models. Newtonian thinking always is attracted to functionalist rather than ecological methods. Modern language is biased towards the categorization of things (that of being) rather than the generative nature of processes (that of becoming). We… …

Theory

When the House is on Fire- Giorgio Agamben

“Nothing I’m doing makes any sense if the house is on fire.” Yet even when the house is on fire it is necessary to continue as before, to do everything with care and precision, perhaps even more so than before—even if no one notices. Perhaps life itself will disappear from the face of the earth, perhaps no memory whatsoever will remain of what has been done, for better or for… …

Theory

Extinction, Rebellion, Happiness- by Franco ‘BIFO’ Berardi

Ill Will Editions wrote to Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi to ask him what lessons the 1970s Autonomia movement had for our current struggles. His answer? Very little. In this essay, Bifo proposes we rethink autonomy from within the new horizon: that of our own extinction. * * * * * 1. The Invisible Hand is strangling us “The Invisible Hand is one of (neo)classical economics’ most enduring mythologies. Its magical power… …

Theory

Ideas to Postpone the End of the World- a book by Ailton Krenak

“Ailton Krenak’s ideas inspire, washing over you with every truth-telling sentence. Read this book.” — Tanya Talaga, bestselling author of Seven Fallen Feathers Indigenous peoples have faced the end of the world before. Now, humankind is on a collective march towards the abyss. Global pandemics, extreme weather, and massive wildfires define this era many now call the Anthropocene. From Brazil comes Ailton Krenak, renowned Indigenous activist and leader, who demonstrates that… …

Theory

Pop Stars, Sonic Weapons, Chaos: KLF attack against culture

Do you want to ‘Divide & Kreate’, ‘Kick Out The Clocks‘ or discover ‘K Time‘? These are the concepts Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty are promoting as part of their latest project, the K Foundation. In certain quarters, the adverts concocted by this organisation have been met with disbelief. Countless journalists seem convinced that Drummond and Cauty are simply throwing away the money they’ve earned from their pop hits on an expensive and pointless campaign.… …

Theory

The ‘Gemeinwesen’ Has Always Been Here: An Engagement with the Ideas of Jacques Camatte

The following article (re-published here by Void Network) was sent to Ill Will Editions by ex-Monsieur Dupont co-author Peter Harrison. In addition to offering a wide-reaching analysis of many central motifs in Camatte’s thought (‘inversion’, the ‘wandering’ of the species, the eclipse of the classical horizon of revolution, and the overcoming of the politics of ‘enmity’) the text may also be read as a confession or testament concerning the author’s… …

Theory

The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy

Watts 1965 . . . Minneapolis 2020 Here’s what the situationists said about riots, looting, and the condition of black people in America 55 years ago (commenting on the Watts riot of 1965). Many things have changed since then, but the fundamental things still apply as time goes by. . . TRANSLATED by Ken Knabb  ____________________________ August 13-16, 1965, the blacks of Los Angeles revolted. An incident between traffic police… …

Theory/Void Network News

Pandemic Dystopias: Biopolitical Emergency and Social Resistance

VOID NETWORK (Athens Greece) – written by George Sotiropoulos & Gene Ray – 4 / 4 / 2020 ____________________ “I didn’t think the Apocalypse would have this much admin” – A teacher from Hastings Setting aside the more technical and delicate issues of agency and intentionality, a virus, like the by now notorious Coronavirus (aka SARS-CoV-2), has a certain mode of being, with its peculiar rhythms and refrains. To a… …

Theory

HISTORY IS NO LONGER ON OUR SIDE: an interview with JÉRÔME BASCHET

Ιnterview conducted on September 12, 2019 by ACTA, on the occasion of the publication of Baschet’s new book on the Gilets Jaunes uprising, Une Juste colère. Interrompre la destruction du monde 1. I would like to begin by asking about the title of your book, or rather, its subtitle: “interrupting the destruction of the world.” Since the 19th century, and for quite some time, the tradition of the communist movement has thought… …

Theory

Premonitions: Fragments of a Culture of Revolt- an interview with AK Thompson

AK Thompson’s newest book, Premonitions: Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt, is focused on strategic and analytical insights about how our social movements work, and don’t, and what they yet may be. AK Press interviews Thompson here on some of the ideas that are central to the book. ________________ AK Press (AKP): Let’s start by having you explain the title of the book, Premonitions. You’ve chosen it in relation to the titles… …

Theory

Everything must go! The abolition of value – Bruno Astarian and Gilles Dauvé

This book is about a revolution (i.e. a historical break, not gradual peaceful evolution) that creates communism – not its preconditions. The main difference between present communist theory and its previous expressions is that it has now become impossible to conceive of communism as a society of associated producers. This book is about a revolution (i.e. a historical break, not gradual peaceful evolution) that creates communism – not its preconditions.… …

Events/Theory

Between Past and Future: On the Contrasting Fortunes of the Far-Right and the Far-Left in Europe By George Sotiropoulos / Void Network

A specter appears to be haunting Europe, but it does not wear red. The recent European elections are the last in a series of electoral results indicating that the ghost has taken a decisively rightwing turn. Of course, “populism” is still used widely by politicians and intellectuals in order to pinpoint this ominous presence that is said to threaten our liberal democracies. However, along with the dubious analytical merits of… …

Theory

Diagnostic of the Future: Between the Crisis of Democracy and the Crisis of Capitalism- A Forecast- by Peter Gelderloos

In this in-depth analysis, Peter Gelderloos explores the technological and geopolitical changes that movements for liberation will face over the next several decades. How will those who hold power today attempt to weather the economic and political crises ahead? Will artificial intelligence and bioeconomics save capitalism? What’s more dangerous—governments refusing to address climate change, or the technocratic solutions they will propose? Will we see the rise of fascism, or the… …

Theory

The Market Theocracy – by ANGELA NAGLE

Τhe recent Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian masterpiece The Handmaid’s Tale has been interpreted by commentators with remarkable uniformity, as a nightmare vision perfectly timed for a new patriarchal age of Trump. More recently the think pieces have taken an increasingly emphatic turn with headlines like “We Discuss the Handmaid’s Tale While We’re Still Allowed to Read” and even “The Handmaid’s Tale Gives More Proof That Men Are Monsters.” #Gilead, a reference to… …

Theory

Travelogue: For a projectuality in times of war (and in times of peace)

The need for compasses Often we think of our ideas as pillars staved-in stable grounds. However, the grounds are generally stable but in appearance. It’s enough for conditions to change, for the grounds becoming muddy or for the waters rising, to see our stable grounds move and our dear pillars subsiding like castles of cards. Then panic seizes us, we run from one indigestible alliance to the next one which… …

Theory

The crisis in modern masculinity- by Pankaj Mishra

Luridly retro ideas of what it means to be a man have caused a dangerous rush of testosterone around the world – from Modi’s Hindu supremacism to Trump’s nuclear brinkmanship by Pankaj Mishra On the evening of 30 January 1948, five months after the independence and partition of India, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was walking to a prayer meeting at his temporary home in New Delhi when he was shot three times,… …

Theory

Walter Benjamin: Messianism and Revolution – Theses on History

Walter Benjamin’s relevance for activists today is most strongly felt in his works on social transformation. In the sixth of eight pieces on Benjamin, Andrew Robinson explores the Theses on History, and discusses the revolutionary implications of allegory, collecting, citation, DIY, and time. by Andrew Robinson   Benjamin’s “On the Concept of History”, also known as “Theses on History” and “Theses on the Philosophy of History”, deals with the question of social… …

Theory

Η Σουηδία και ο σοσιαλδημοκρατικός μεταμοντερνισμός- Γιώργος Κουτσαντώνης

«Στον κόσμο που ζούμε […] τα τείχη δεν είναι στέρεα και σίγουρα δεν διαρκούν για πάντα· είναι ιδιαίτερα κινητικά και θυμίζουν στον ταξιδιώτη της ζωής χάρτινα διαχωριστικά ή καλύμματα, που σκοπός τους είναι να αλλάζουν συνεχώς θέση σύμφωνα με τις διαδοχικές αλλαγές των αναγκών και των γούστων» (Zygmunt Bauman) [1] Από τη δεκαετία του ’70 έως και σήμερα, κεντρική πολιτιστική επιταγή είναι η σχετικοποίηση των πάντων και μια τάση ριζικής… …

Theory

An Essay on Liberation- Herbert Marcuse – 1969

Acknowledgments Thanks Again to my friends who read the manuscript and whose comments and criticism I heeded throughout: especially Leo Lowenthal (University of California at Berkeley), Arno J. Mayer (Princeton University). and Barrington Moore, Jr. (Harvard University). My wife discussed with me every part and problem of the manuscript. Without her cooperation, this essay would have appeared much sooner. I am grateful to her that it didn’t. Preface The growing… …

Theory

NECROPOLITICS by Achille Mbembe

How do contemporary forms of subjugation of life to the power of death (necropolitics) profoundly reconfigure the relation between resistance, sacrifice, and terror? This essay assumes that the ultimate expression of sovereignty resides, to a large degree, in the power and the capacity to dictate who may live and who must die. Hence, to kill or to allow to live constitute the limits of sovereignty, its fundamental attributes. To exercise… …

Theory

Trojan Horses- Activist art and power by Lucy Lippard- a historic essay positively revisited

Positively Trojan Horses Revisited  Lucy Lippard’s famous essay on activist art should need no introduction or art historical contextualization; what’s more, “Trojan Horses: Activist Art and Power”  published in the seminal 1984 anthology Art After Modernism, represents but one entry point into a truly impressive body of work dedicated to the politics of art and representation from the 1960s up to today. As such, the essay can be situated both in an… …

Theory

Postmodernism is dead. What comes next? ALISON GIBBONS

From the late 1980s onwards, novelists, artists, critics and art historians have foreseen the death of postmodernism. Linda Hutcheon, in the second edition of The Politics of Postmodernism (2002), declared: “it’s over”. The contemporary period – starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and gathering momentum throughout the 1990s and beyond – is often said to have a distinct intensity, and thus feels like a moment in… …

Theory

DESTROY ESTABLISHED REALITY! Sissy Doutsiou / Void Network

    From the 2005 French riots in the suburbs of Paris and all over France until the Greek social revolt from 2008 to 2012, from the Tunisian and Libyan social explosions, the Tahrir square revolt, the indignados movement in Spain and Gezi Park in Turkey, from the panamerican Occupy movement to the riots of Ferguson and Baltimore none of these revolts led to a revolutionary change of organisation of… …

Theory

CONCERNING ART AND SOCIAL CHANGE By Marco Deseriis and Brian Holmes

The 2007 reader Art and Social Change offers a genealogy of today’s radical cultures. Here, Brian Holmes and Marco Deseriis glean insights from the book into today’s dilemma of producing critical culture within recuperative ‘semiocapitalism’ Among the groundswell of books investigating the link between aesthetics and politics, Art and Social Change: A Critical Reader is particularly ambitious. Published in 2007 as a companion volume to the historical survey exhibition Forms… …

Theory

When Insurrections Die by Gilles Dauvé

“If the Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian revolution in the West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist development.” Marx/Engels – Preface to the Russian edition of the manifesto, 1882. This perspective was not realized. The European industrial proletariat missed its rendez-vous with a revitalized Russian peasant commune. Brest-Litovsk, 1917 and 1939… …

Theory

What Exactly Is Neoliberalism?- a talk with Wendy Brown

  Climate change, a crippled welfare state, the financial crisis, skyrocketing income inequality, political disappointments reaching back decades, terrible superhero movies grossing billions of dollars, Facebook and Tinder—these are just a few of the sins attributed to neoliberalism. But what exactly is neoliberalism? An economic doctrine? The revenge of capitalism’s ruling class? Or something even more insidious? Booked is a monthly series of Q&As with authors by Dissent contributing editor Timothy Shenk. For this… …

Theory

Was the Rise of Neoliberalism the Root Cause of Extreme Inequality?- by George Monbiot // Ήταν η άνοδος του Νεοφιλελευθερισμού η πρωταρχική αιτία της ακραίας ανισότητας;

[English+Ελληνικά] Imagine if the people of the Soviet Union had never heard of communism. The ideology that dominates our lives has, for most of us, no name. Mention it in conversation and you’ll be rewarded with a shrug. Even if your listeners have heard the term before, they will struggle to define it. Neoliberalism: do you know what it is? Its anonymity is both a symptom and cause of its… …

Void Network News

Wolfi Landstreicher (Feral Faun) talks with Void Network / Συζήτηση του Wolfi Landstreicher (Feral Faun) με την συλλογικότητα Κενό Δίκτυο

Living for Today / Fighting for Tommorow(Athens Anarchist student’s demo DEC.2013)  Wolfi Landstreicher is an amerikan anarchist philosopher and political activist. During the 60 years of his life he succeeds to combine romanticism, critical stand-point and theory with deep understanding on Max Stirner  into a  poetic and surrealistic unity that leads into the insurrection of subjectivities and a revolutionary way of life. He is a traveller, a wonderer and a… …

Theory

“Power, Propaganda, and Purpose in American Democracy” by Andrew Gavin Marshall

One central facet to the development of the modern institutional society under which we live and are dominated today, was the redefining of the concept of ‘democracy’ that took place in the early 20th century. This immensely important discussion took place among the educated, elite intellectual class in the United States at that time, and the consequences of which were profound for the development of not only American society and democracy,… …

Theory

An Open Letter to Everyone who Thinks I’m a Worthless Lazy Bastard

First of all, don’t be so harsh.  There’s a lot of terrible things in this world and someone not working isn’t one of them.  Actually, you’ve got to be a hard worker to accomplish anything really bad.  The Nazis were hard workers.  And hardcore criminals doing all that running around, I don’t have the nerve for it.  I’m simpler than a bump on a stump but I took a test… …

Void Network News

What Does it mean When We Say “Freedom” ? by Panos Papadimitropoulos / Void Network

It is common knowledge in the areas of social sciences, especially social anthropology, that reality constituted symbolically, that the meaning that people give to the world does not reflect a deeper essence of things but is the product of the relationship between what we are talking about and the importance we attribute to it. In this sense, two people can understand the same situation, relationship or event in different ways… …

Theory/Void Network News

VOID THEORY>> Notes about Corpses by Tasos Sagris (a dialogue with Vinqo Denken)

vinqo denken from http://destroyathens.blogspot.com/ wrote: To be done with the judgement of DOG Part one SCRATCH N SNIFF The history of performance/performance art and all other possible mutations of this word (structure) are actually non-existent as far as the reality/history of our own KULTUR is concerned. And this is because there is no history that has had it’s own autonomous development. There have been no diversions. There have been no… …

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