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It's the Political Economy, Stupid: The Global Financial Crisis in Art and Theory
It's the Political Economy, Stupid brings together internationally acclaimed artists and thinkers, including Slavoj Žižek, David Graeber, Judith Butler and Brian Holmes, to focus on the current economic crisis in a sustained and critical manner.
Following a unique format, images and text are integrated in a visually stunning bespoke production by activist designer Noel Douglas. What emerges is a powerful critique of the current capitalist crisis through an analytical and theoretical response and an aesthetic-cultural rejoinder. By combining artistic responses with the analysis of leading radical theorists, the book expands the boundaries of critique beyond the usual discourse.
It's the Political Economy, Stupid argues that it is time to push back against the dictates of the capitalist logic and, by use of both theoretical and artistic means, launch a rescue of the very notion of the social.
Following a unique format, images and text are integrated in a visually stunning bespoke production by activist designer Noel Douglas. What emerges is a powerful critique of the current capitalist crisis through an analytical and theoretical response and an aesthetic-cultural rejoinder. By combining artistic responses with the analysis of leading radical theorists, the book expands the boundaries of critique beyond the usual discourse.
It's the Political Economy, Stupid argues that it is time to push back against the dictates of the capitalist logic and, by use of both theoretical and artistic means, launch a rescue of the very notion of the social.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 1, 2014
One of the things about political and economic crises is that they tend to stimulate sharp, provocative and engaging cultural debates, all the more so when the one of which we are in the midst has centred on the virtual, the fabricated and what is often known as the ‘knowledge economy’ in both its origin (fabricated virtual money as debt and solution to the debt crisis) and economic solutions that commodify the commons of knowledge and stimulate the already existing precariousness of people who work in those sectors. Not surprisingly, a growing number of visual artists have turned to issue of the economic crisis, it causes, its effects, its solutions: one of the outcomes was a touring exhibition (it may still be touring) It’s the Political Economy, Stupid curated by Gregory Sholette and Oliver Ressler.
This collection of essays, pieces from the exhibition and commentaries on the show is a form of catalogue, highlighting the issues raised by the art works, but doing so much more in turning its attention to, on the one hand, the political economy of the crisis in the form of essays by Slavoj Žižek (from which the title is taken) and John Roberts, on the politics of responses in art (via Julia Bryan-Wilson) and activism (in pieces by David Graeber and Judith Butler) and in the political economy of doing art (by Kerstin Stakermejer and Brian Holmes). Most of the pieces are firmly in the flexible school of anarchism associated with the Occupy Movement, but many take the debate in ways not widely seen in the English language debates.
Among the sharpest, or perhaps the most useful for things I am thinking about and working on – sharp being code for ‘stimulating at the moment’, are Stakemejer’s and Holmes’ pieces on working in cultural industries fully imbricated with and to capitalist relations and commodification, but also looking to forms of prefigurative action-in-practice in that work. Similarly, I found Roberts’ critique of analyses of the crisis based in underconsumption worthy of revisiting and rethinking; while I am not convinced by his case the critique is rare from the left even though it could, with a gallon of disbelief, be read as a form of a heighten-the-contradictions approach to change: it isn’t, it is based in the idea that it seems perverse to argue that workers’ confidence in struggle will be enhanced by having more of them/us fully participating in the capitalist workforce…. The theoretical essays are among the sharpest pieces of work I have encountered dealing with broad if unconventional left critiques along with efforts to find ways to put into place the anarchist programme of building the new in the shell of the old: it is, in a sense, advocating a version of the ideas Erik Olin Wright explores in Envisioning Real Utopias although I am not sure that many would put themselves in the same leftist camp as Wright. Most of the pieces are previously published in some (usually, longer) form, although the essays by Roberts, Butler and Holmes are not previously published.
The other half of the book, and in some ways the more interesting, deals with pieces in the exhibition, in the form of a series of commentaries on various of the works, their form, content, style and politics. From pedagogic film to photos, performance pieces and interventions into the daily life of living with/in/despite the crisis: these sections make me want to track down the show (it was supposed to be in Londonderry this year but I cannot find any mention of it). The works are sharp, challenging and inspiring; they show intense debate and encouraging activism.
The book, as a whole, would probably have been better had I seen the show – it is very much a catalogue – but it is not necessary to have done so; examples of quite a few of the artists’ work can be found on-line, and the several of the essays (especially Stakemeier and Holmes) merit closer study and revisiting. (It would also have been better without the proofing errors: for the most part they’re not a problem by the Žižek piece is a presentational mess in a couple of key sections.) What is more, the idea of exploring the crisis in art and theory is a great one, given the mystique attached to knowledge economies and cultural work in the newly precarious economic order. Well worth a look for those interested in cultural economies, analyses of the crises and the political economy of everyday responses.
This collection of essays, pieces from the exhibition and commentaries on the show is a form of catalogue, highlighting the issues raised by the art works, but doing so much more in turning its attention to, on the one hand, the political economy of the crisis in the form of essays by Slavoj Žižek (from which the title is taken) and John Roberts, on the politics of responses in art (via Julia Bryan-Wilson) and activism (in pieces by David Graeber and Judith Butler) and in the political economy of doing art (by Kerstin Stakermejer and Brian Holmes). Most of the pieces are firmly in the flexible school of anarchism associated with the Occupy Movement, but many take the debate in ways not widely seen in the English language debates.
Among the sharpest, or perhaps the most useful for things I am thinking about and working on – sharp being code for ‘stimulating at the moment’, are Stakemejer’s and Holmes’ pieces on working in cultural industries fully imbricated with and to capitalist relations and commodification, but also looking to forms of prefigurative action-in-practice in that work. Similarly, I found Roberts’ critique of analyses of the crisis based in underconsumption worthy of revisiting and rethinking; while I am not convinced by his case the critique is rare from the left even though it could, with a gallon of disbelief, be read as a form of a heighten-the-contradictions approach to change: it isn’t, it is based in the idea that it seems perverse to argue that workers’ confidence in struggle will be enhanced by having more of them/us fully participating in the capitalist workforce…. The theoretical essays are among the sharpest pieces of work I have encountered dealing with broad if unconventional left critiques along with efforts to find ways to put into place the anarchist programme of building the new in the shell of the old: it is, in a sense, advocating a version of the ideas Erik Olin Wright explores in Envisioning Real Utopias although I am not sure that many would put themselves in the same leftist camp as Wright. Most of the pieces are previously published in some (usually, longer) form, although the essays by Roberts, Butler and Holmes are not previously published.
The other half of the book, and in some ways the more interesting, deals with pieces in the exhibition, in the form of a series of commentaries on various of the works, their form, content, style and politics. From pedagogic film to photos, performance pieces and interventions into the daily life of living with/in/despite the crisis: these sections make me want to track down the show (it was supposed to be in Londonderry this year but I cannot find any mention of it). The works are sharp, challenging and inspiring; they show intense debate and encouraging activism.
The book, as a whole, would probably have been better had I seen the show – it is very much a catalogue – but it is not necessary to have done so; examples of quite a few of the artists’ work can be found on-line, and the several of the essays (especially Stakemeier and Holmes) merit closer study and revisiting. (It would also have been better without the proofing errors: for the most part they’re not a problem by the Žižek piece is a presentational mess in a couple of key sections.) What is more, the idea of exploring the crisis in art and theory is a great one, given the mystique attached to knowledge economies and cultural work in the newly precarious economic order. Well worth a look for those interested in cultural economies, analyses of the crises and the political economy of everyday responses.
Displaying 1 of 1 review