Radical Theory Berlin

February 16th: The Anarchy of Queer

2012-02-12T11:56:00.001-08:00

Following on from our gender theme from two meetings ago:

"The Anarchy of Queer: rethinking postructuralist possibilities and the politics of sexuality"

by Jamie Heckert (2006)

www.psa.ac.uk/2006/pps/Heckert.pdf
(works if you copy and paste the link rather than click on it)

Meeting Thursday at 8pm, Tempest Library.

Thursday February 2:nd

2012-01-31T05:32:00.000-08:00

On the one-year anniversary of the eviction of Liebig 14-
Talks, and discussion of "Fairy Dust and Rupture" by the Free Association
3-5pm, in the Infoladen Daneben, Liebigstrasse 34 (next door to XB).

Suffering rights as paradoxes

2012-01-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

For Thursday's meeting, we will read Wendy Brown's Suffering rights as paradoxes. It has been sent out on the email list. If you're not on the list, please send an email and you'll get the article.

The meeting takes place at Tempest Library, Reichenberger Straße 63a, 8 pm Thursday 19 of January.

New Year Readings: Death, Negativity, Alienation, Life!

2011-12-20T05:14:00.000-08:00

For the next meeting on January 5th we will be reading:

Tiqqun - The Theory of Bloom

http://ifile.it/2igpmyb

and

Aaron Asphaar and Amanda Silbernagel - Angst, the glimpse, and revolution

http://aaronasphar.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/amanda-silbernagel-me-on-angst-the-glimpse-revolution/

8pm, Tempest Library.

December 15th reading: The Persistence of the Negative

2011-12-10T07:29:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Noys´critique of the "affirmationist bloc" of contintental theory, and thesis on the necessity to think the negative in our conceptualizations and actions of resistance to capitalism.
Read what you can of the introduction and conclusion. Text will be circulated via the mailing list.
Meeting 8pm, Thursday the 15th, Tempest Library.

Participatory Economics vs. Economic Democracy

2011-11-25T07:19:00.000-08:00

For the next session we'll take a look at two sketches for a post-capitalist society. Michael Albert promotes his view of 'Participatory Economics', while David Schweickart would rather see 'Economic Democracy'. Both have written a book on their ideas; the first is Parecon: Life After Capitalism and the other is After Capitalism by Albert and Schweickart respectively.

====The Material====

Participatory Economics/Parecon, by Michael Albert:

Video: http://www.zcommunications.org/alternative-economy-cultures-documentations-by-michael-albert
Texts: http://www.zcommunications.org/topics/parecon

Economic Democracy, by David Schweickart:

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT4cNwC-aGQ&feature=related
(90 minutes of video, with bad audio quality)
Texts: http://www.luc.edu/faculty/dschwei/articles.htm
(see http://www.luc.edu/faculty/dschwei/democracy.pdf)

also:...

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et91gXGMLwA&feature=related
(first of a series of 5 videos, which don't explain much on their own, but can be interesting to check out after having an idea what these guys are about)

Reading for Thursday 17th November - "Debt: The First Five Thousand Years", by David Graeber

2011-11-07T01:44:00.000-08:00

We're reading Debt: The First Five Thousand Years, by David Graeber

Thursday November 3:rd reading - Machinic Capitalism and Network Surplus Value

2011-10-26T04:56:00.000-07:00

Continuing on the machine-line, we're reading the text Machinic Capitalism and Network Surplus Value:  Towards a Political Economy of the Turing Machine by Pasquinelli.

Reading for Thursday 20:th - Machines

2011-10-17T11:45:00.000-07:00

We're reading the Grundrisse excerpt The Fragment on Machines

And also a text by Virno discussing this fragment:
http://www.generation-online.org/p/fpvirno10.htm

Reading 6th of October - The Mass Psychology of Fascism

2011-09-22T03:19:00.000-07:00

The first two chapters of The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Wilhelm Reich.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/masspsychology_fascism.pdf

Thursday 15:th - Bitcoin

2011-09-12T16:30:00.000-07:00

Bitcoin - the decentralized digital currency.

A discussion of technical and political aspects of decentralized currency.

Reading suggestions: (feel free to add your own in comments)

1st of September meeting: The UK riots

2011-08-29T06:09:00.000-07:00

Let´s discuss the recent UK riots and the possibilities for left politics. Not focusing on one text in particular but here is some recommended reading:

The Commune - Don´t moralise, don´t judge, don´t take pictures - it´s time for the riot to get radical: http://thecommune.co.uk/2011/08/09/don%E2%80%99t-moralise-don%E2%80%99t-judge-don%E2%80%99t-take-pictures-%E2%80%93-it%E2%80%99s-time-for-the-riot-to-get-radical/

Socialism and/or Barbarism - On open letter to those who condemn the looting
Part 1: http://socialismandorbarbarism.blogspot.com/2011/08/open-letter-to-those-who-condemn.html
Part 2: http://socialismandorbarbarism.blogspot.com/2011/08/open-letter-to-those-who-condemn_10.html

University for Strategic Optimism - #riotcleanup or #riotwhitewash?
http://universityforstrategicoptimism.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/riotcleanup-or-riotwhitewash/

Slavoj Zizek- Shoplifters of the World Unite http://www.lrb.co.uk/2011/08/19/slavoj-zizek/shoplifters-of-the-world-unite

And some interesting videos and more texts can be found here: http://www.metamute.org/en/news_and_analysis/riot_round_up

Some questions that we might like to discuss around:

What are the possibilities for the radicalization of the riots when class is no longer functioning as a point of collective resonance for mass action? Are consumerist subjectivities and desires too entrenched, even (or especially) amongst the working and underclasses, to shift into something else; revolutionary collective desire? Is the Left in the UK too weak to build on the possibilities of the hegemonic rupture created by the riots; too hesitant to seek productive connections and alliances with the anger of the rioters, and lacking the coherence necessary to present an offensive front against the dominating right-wing discourse? What can be done about the huge repressive power of the state (in the form of police, army, weapons, courts and prisons) when it comes to mass uprisings?

Writing exercise for 18th of August - reading our own texts

2011-08-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

Some of the people who attend the group will write short texts and we'll discuss them during the meeting. Everyone is invited to write! It doesn't need to be an amazingly original and exceptional text.

Formulate problems that are interesting for you, speak about some texts/authors/things that inspire or bother you, or maybe just pose a series of questions. The texts may or may not be published in this blog before the meeting. In case they don't, they will be distributed during the meeting.

UPDATE

Here two of the texts:

The Reproduction of the Inaction

Two Exercises of Imagination

Reading for 4th of August

2011-07-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

Breivik's manifesto! I suggest we just read the introduction, until page 37 of the pdf. I don't know if there's any key passages in the book that one shouldn't miss, but the intro seems to contain an analysis of the Frankfurt school and deconstruction that might be interesting to look at.

http://rymdkoloni.se/2083.pdf

There's also a video manifesto that seems to be a sort of summary of the 1500 page text; it's just 12 minutes so I suggest we have a look at that as well to get a general idea of Breivik's ideas.

http://publicintelligence.net/utoya-gunman-anders-behring-breivik-video-manifesto/

Reading for 21:th of july

2011-07-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

PRELIMINARY NOTES TOWARDS AN ACCOUNT OF THE “MOVEMENT OF POPULAR ASSEMBLIES”

8 pm at Tempest Library @ Reichenberger str 63a.

Reading for 16th of June

2011-06-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

"Navigating Movements" (2002) Interview with Brian Massumi
Available here: http://www.brianmassumi.com/english/interviews.html

Reading for Thursday 2:nd

2011-05-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

“I am sure that you are more
pessimistic than I am . . .”: An Interview
with Giorgio Agamben

Agamben - Rethinking Marxism Interview

Edit: now with direct pdf link

Reading 19th of may - Change the World Without Taking Power

2011-05-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

Chapters one to three of Change the World Without Taking Power - John Holloway.

http://libcom.org/library/change-world-without-taking-power-john-holloway

Reading for 5:th of may - Marching for Whose Alternative?

2011-04-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

Escalate collective has a new very interesting text up on the protests in the UK, how to relate to the media, the cops and the established unions in the ongoing process of finding new forms of resistance and ways of building collective power.

This will be the reading for next meeting, in addition to our first of may experiences of course!

http://escalatecollective.net

Reading for Thursday 21:th - Communisation

2011-04-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

Communisation is not any peaceful experimentation with new ways of life, but the revolutionary answer by the proletariat to an acute social crisis. The text below offers a few observations on this connection in the light of the current crisis.

Text available in English and Swedish.

Meeting as usual
Tempest Library, 63a @ Reichenberger str - 8pm

no reading group 31:th of mars

2011-03-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

Slavoj Žižek will give a lecture at the FU, the 31 March, entitled 'Is It Still Possible to Be a Hegelian Today?'

http://www.fu-berlin.de/presse/fup/2011/fup_11_053/index.html

Reading for Thursday Mar 17

2011-03-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

The essay of Louis Armand - Wittgenstein on the Beach

"If thought/consciousness is not a little person inside our heads, then what is it? And where is does it take place?"

available at aaaaarg.org

Meeting will take place at 8pm at Tempest Library, Reichenbergerstr. 63a.

Reading for Thursday Mars 3:rd - Language!

2011-02-28T15:17:00.000-08:00

What is this thing called language and how does it work? Some interesting views from Manuel DeLanda on language as an assemblage.

Deleuze: History and Science

chapter: Assemblage Theory and Linguistic Evolution.

Available on aaaaarg.org

Meeting will take place 20:00 at Tempest Library, Reichenbergerstr. 63a.

Reading for Thursday Feb 17

2011-02-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

Second chapter of The State of Exception by Giorgio Agamben available at aaaaarg.org or here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?dz9w1zzw7t5b3py

Reading and discussion relating to the developments in Egypt and surrounding countries.

February 17:th 20:00 @ Tempest Library, 63a Reichenbergerstr.

February 3:rd - State of emergency

2011-01-28T08:15:00.000-08:00

Egypt has been living under a almost constant state of emergency since the Israel-Egyptian war in 1967 (one 18-month break) [source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_emergency#Egypt]

What we are reading is the first chapter of The State of Exception by Giorgio Agamben available at aaaaarg.org or here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?dz9w1zzw7t5b3py

February 3:rd 20:00 @ Tempest Library, 63a Reichenbergerstr.

Reading for Thursday Dec 16

2010-12-02T15:32:00.001-08:00

Chapter 3 of Animal Spirits (see earlier posts)
Location Tempest, time 20:00

Edit: the date is Thursday the 16:th, not 12:th. That means today, sorry for this mistake!

Reading for Thursday December 2nd

2010-11-29T10:03:00.000-08:00

Animal Spirits - A Bestiary of the Commons by Matteo Pasquinelli.
Chapters 2 and 3
Available at aaaaarg.org

Meeting will NOT take place at Tempest this week, but at Cafe Kotti, Adalbertstr. 96

See you then!

Presentation and Discussion at Liebig 14 : The Will to Power, War Machines and Left Praxis.

2010-11-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

How can these concepts inform our practice? And how can our practice inform the creation of new concepts? Discussion in english. Suggested readings: ‚The War Machine and Capitalism‘ (Marzec 2001) available here and ‚Will to Power on Deleuze’s Thought‘ (Somacles: 2009) available here.

6pm Liebig Strasse 14 (near U-bahn Frankfurter Tor)

Danach: Voku, Cocktails and Zomby Party.

Reading for November 18th - Deleuze and Queer Theory

2010-11-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

'The Adventures of a Sex' by Luciana Parisi, Chapter 5 in Deleuze and Queer Theory
Available at aaaaarg.org
Meeting at 8pm, Tempest Library, 63a Reichenbergerstr.

Reading for November 4th: A Bestiary of the Commons

2010-10-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

Animal Spirits - A Bestiary of the Commons by Matteo Pasquinelli.
Introduction and Chapter 1
Available at aaaaarg.org

Meeting at Tempest Library, 63a Reichenbergerstr, 8pm.

Thursday 21:th October

2010-10-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

Lecture by Foucault on subjectivity and juristiction.
Michel Foucault, Truth and Judicial Forms (1974), Excerpt
Meeting will take place at 8pm at Tempest Library, Reichenbergerstr. 63a.

October 7th: Deleuze and feminism

2010-10-05T04:39:00.000-07:00

Reading this week is "Nomadism with a difference: Deleuze's legacy in a feminist perspective" by Rosi Braidotti, available here: www.philosophy.ru/library/pdf/113455.pdf

Meeting will take place at 8pm at Tempest Library, Reichenbergerstr. 63a.

Late notice reading September 30th

2010-09-29T05:57:00.001-07:00

"Reading" for tomorrow is watching this three-part youtube lecture by Timothy Morton about Ecology and "The Mesh"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-mWCPa9y3c

Timespace: Tempest Library 20:00

September 16th

2010-09-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

Same text as last post!

Tempest library at Reichenberger str. 63a 20:00

Reading for Thursday 26 aug:

2010-08-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

Continuing our Negrian deviations, we're reading some post-workerism theories on immaterial labour.

http://www.generation-online.org/c/fcimmateriallabour3.htm

Location Tempest library at 20:00
(see previous entries for address)

Reading for thursday 12:th

2010-08-09T02:30:00.000-07:00

from Agamben's Means without ends we will be reading
"Marginal notes on Commentaries on the society of the Spectacle" and "Notes on Politics"

find it here: http://rapidshare.com/files/411826678/agamben-means_without_end.pdf
or at aaaaarg.org

Be at Tempest Library in
Reichenberger Str. 63a at 20:00

Reading for Thursday 5:th

2010-08-02T11:55:00.001-07:00

Continuing our Empire studies, next thing to read is chapter 4 - The Decline and Fall of Empire

This time we will meet at Tempest Library in
Reichenberger Str. 63a at 20:00

Empire

2010-07-26T14:48:00.001-07:00

We're continuing reading Empire (see last post). Chapter 2 until Thursday.

Update:
Location: Liebig str. 14 Friedrichein
TIME: 18:30

Reading for July 22nd: Empire

2010-07-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

What you can of Part 1, available here: http://www.infoshop.org/texts/empire.pdf

Last minute location change:
We will be in the park outside Bethanien, here is a Google Maps Link

Reading for 1st of July: SCUM manifesto by Valerie Solanas

2010-06-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

We're reading the S.C.U.M. manifesto for next time. You'll find it here: http://www.womynkind.org/scum.htm

See you on Thursday 7 pm @ Liebig 14!

Bis bald /Tove

2010-06-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

As This weeks reading i'm hereby suggesting this interesting interview with Jane Bennet.

http://philosophyinatimeoferror.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/vibrant-matters-an-interview-with-jane-bennett/

Meeting at liebig 14, check earlier posts for info on getting there!

Reading for June 17th

2010-06-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

'Dominant Capital and the New Wars', from Bichler, Shimshon and Nitzan, Jonathan.

available at:

http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/1/

Meeting at Liebig 14, if it's sunny on the roof where hopefully we can find some peace and quiet for discussion.

Reading for 10th of June: Deleuzian flat ontologies as nihilism?

2010-06-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Critiques have been made of Deleuze/Guattarian philosophy, and the neo-materialist thinkers they have inspired, which suggest that their flat ontology of matter and flows leads to a certain political nihilism. Is thinking in terms of movement, flows, bodies and assemblages useful only as technical appendages to a more obviously political Anarcho-Marxist critique? Or does Deleuze/Guattarian philosophy propose a new paradigm of thought that offers a sense of the political that is much broader than the one offered by Marxism?

Let's read this: ' Object-orientated philosophy and nihilism' from Larval Subjects, available here: http://larvalsubjects.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/object-oriented-philosophy-and-nihilism/

and this: ' On having your cake and eating it' from Splintering Bone Ashes, available here:
http://splinteringboneashes.blogspot.com/2009/01/on-having-your-cake-and-eating-it.html

These readings are more in relation to the emerging philosophy of 'Speculative Realism' which proposes a form of radical nihilism, but the texts also bring Deleuze into the discussion.

Meeting will take place at Liebig Strasse 14 from 7pm, nearest u-bahn Frankfurter Tor, ring door bell or call me to get in 017688038433.

-Lucrezia

No reading group on Thursday 3rd of June

2010-06-02T01:42:00.000-07:00

Perpetual variation of the force of existing...

2010-05-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

Reading for 27.05.2010: Deleuze on Spinoza, Lecture from the Cours Vincennes, 1978.

Available here: http://www.webdeleuze.com/php/texte.php?cle=14&groupe=Spinoza&langue=2

Meeting will again take place at Liebig Strasse 14, from 7pm.

2010-05-20T01:23:00.000-07:00

Meeting today taking place at: Liebig Strasse 14, 10247 Berlin. Nearest U-bahn: Frankfurter Tor.

Reading for 20.05.2010- See previous post

2010-05-19T02:01:00.000-07:00

Readings for 13.05.2010 - Greece

2010-05-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

This: The Glass Floor- Theorie Communiste’s analysis of the December 2008 Greek riots : http://libcom.org/library/glass-floor-theorie-communiste. Fairly long, but looks interesting, read what you can.

This: The Morbid Explosion of Ideology-Announcement of the Greek magazine Flesh Machine on the events of May the 5th in Athens: http://libcom.org/library/morbid-explosion-ideology

And the last few posts on http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/ for recent developments and especially discussion around deaths at Marfin Bank.

-Lucrezia

Tempest Radical Library Berlin

2010-05-05T01:59:00.001-07:00

Anarchist Library at Scharnweberstr. 38, full of radical texts in English, Polish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Basque, Catalan and Spanish. Opening hours are: Tuesdays and Thursdays 16:00-20:00, and Sundays 14:00-18:00. Go by, it's great!
Lucrezia

Reading for thursday 29:th april

2010-04-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

For next week we will be reading Steve Goodman a.k.a Kode9, Electronic music artist, DJ and founder of the Hyperdub record label.

The scope for the first meeting is the introduction and first two chapters.

Link to the pdf book: Sonic Warfare

'After the Greek Riots'

2010-04-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

Great blog from Occupied London covering the current situation in Greece:

http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/

Reading for thursday 15:th

2010-04-12T09:50:00.002-07:00

Important change:
Meetings are now on thursdays!

We are continuing reading Capitalist realism, probably the whole book until next time (it's very short). Look at previous entry for pdf link.

Reading for wednesday April 7:th

2010-04-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

Capitalist Realism (pdf), by Mark Fisher.
As far as you want but maybe we should focus on the first and second chapters for the first meeting, i find a lot of really nice material in this text.

Update: wednesday 7:th not 8:th as previously claimed in title.

Readings and audio for Wednesday 31st March

2010-03-26T04:01:00.000-07:00

1. The rest of 'The Coming Insurrection' by The Invisible Commitee
http://tarnac9.wordpress.com/texts/the-coming-insurrection

2. Short article by Alberto Toscano on the case of the Tarnac 9: 'Criminalising Dissent' http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jan/28/human-rights-tarnac-nine

3. Mark Fisher (K Punk) discussing some ideas from his book 'Capitalism Realism', available here:
http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2010/02/mark-fisher-nubureaucracy-and-capitalist-realism/

Reading for wednesday 24:th

2010-03-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

The reading for next week is the first two parts (or circles as the book calls them) of 'The coming insurrection'.
The book can be accessed in its whole at this address
http://tarnac9.wordpress.com/texts/the-coming-insurrection

The TV anchor and concerned citizen Glenn Beck also offers some critical comments on this text, available at youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKyi2qNskJc

Readings for Wednesday 17th March: Badiou vs Deleuze!

2010-03-12T01:15:00.000-08:00

Gilles Deleuze, 'What is the Event' chapter, in The Fold.
Available at http://a.aaaarg.org.

And: Alain Badiou 'The Event in Deleuze'.
Available here: http://www.parrhesiajournal.org/parrhesia02/parrhesia02_badiou2.pdf

Radical Theory Reading Group, every Wednesday 7-9pm at New Yorck at Bethanien.

2010-03-03T09:38:00.000-08:00

How can we use theory to understand, relate to and challenge our political environments? Are you interested in reading Deleuze and Guattari and related critical thinkers? As well as thinking through what these ideas offer us in terms of self-organization? We want to create an open environment for reading, discussing and applying theory as well as build a dialogue between philosophical reflection and direct activism in Berlin. Join us in our weekly discussions of texts and themes on capitalism, space, self organization and the city. No prior knowledge required, all welcome!

Location:
New Yorck im Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2
10997 Berlin

reading for 13.10.09

2009-10-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

We're going to be making a return to deleuze / guattari. the next few weeks will be on chapter 3 of mille plateaux - the geology of morals. there's alot to explore and take from the chapter so i think its worth going into it in some depth..... Tomorrow will be my last session until january, but i hope you'll be able to carry on as normal without me. I'll try to follow the reading from my hammock.....

-Andres

p.s. - I thought i'd post the videos of Delanda's lecture on deleuze we spoke about last time, a really accessable and interesting way into deleuze

soc of spec

2009-09-07T06:36:00.000-07:00

Hey lads, tomorrows reading is chapter eins (1) von the society of the spectacle by Guy Debord. its a riveting chapter full of marxian sentance inversions. Good luck!

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle

Also gang, numbers have dwindled a little of late so I propose a renewed marketing campaign. Print the post and stick it up in some good places so that we can suck in some more members..

2009-08-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

This weeks reading (for tuesday 18th August) is Anne McNevin's text -

Political Belonging in a Neoliberal Era: The Struggle of the Sans-Papiers

click on the link to view. We will also be going over last weeks reading again, available here

Be the Pink Panther and your loves will be like the wasp and the orchid...

2009-07-30T02:27:00.000-07:00

Here is the second reading we decided on for next week, alongside more of A Thousand Plateaus #3 '10,000 B.C.: The Geology of Morals (Who Does the Earth Think It Is?)'

Manuel De Landa ' The Geology of Morals: A Neo-Materialist Interpretation':

http://www.t0.or.at/delanda/geology.htm

And a useful outline summary of ATP #3:

http://www.protevi.com/john/DG/PDF/ATP3.pdf

Some Links for Capitalism and Schizophrenia

2009-07-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't had time to go through all of these, but I enjoyed the illustrations a lot, and am just starting with the Hardt lecture notes. I didn't want to suggest these all as reading for the group per se, I thought I would just throw them onto the page and see if anyone is compelled to look into any of them and we'll see how that connects in with and fans out among the other conversations and readings. see you tomorrow! -abc (image from Marc Ngui, from the link below with pictures)

1000 Plateaus on Google Books (with significant portions available in preview, though I don't think they are printable):

http://books.google.com/books?id=B9xLrS6mpGoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0

This links to lecture notes/chapter summaries by Michael Hardt on Anti-Oedipus and 1000 Plateaus (as well as Das Kapital):

http://www.duke.edu/~hardt/

These are some fun drawings / visual representations of the first two chapters of 1000 Plateaus:

http://www.bumblenut.com/drawing/art/plateaus/index.shtml

An entire "Wiki" (fledgling from the looks of it) on the series Capitalism & Schizophrenia:

http://www.capitalismandschizophrenia.org/index.php/Main_Page

Essay about the Translation of Agencement by Assemblage

http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/deleuzeandguattari.htm

D&G Web Resource page (including links to some De Landa)

http://www.langlab.wayne.edu/CStivale/D-G/Academe.html#anchor649215

"ABCs of Deleuze" on Youtube

http://www.langlab.wayne.edu/CStivale/D-G/ABCs.html

Realer than real

2009-07-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the Masumi article to read for next week (along with chapter 2 of a thousand plateaus)

Realer than real: The simulacrum according to Deleuze and Guattari

I also came accross these quite useful summaries for various works by Deleuze/Guattari where the different chapters are broken down as an index of statements. can be quite useful for extracting the basic claims/arguments made...

Protevi's Notes

-Andres

2009-07-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

Two resources for finding interesting texts:

http://a.aaaarg.org/

You need to create an account/username, then you can download the texts that you see on that page. Also, there are many discussions about various ideas and thinkers, some of which are very helpful.

http://www.avaxhome.ws/ebooks

This searchable site compiles links to various free and anonymous file uploading services (like rapidshare or uploading.com) from where you can download PDFs of over 100,000 texts. They don't have everything, but there's a lot of interesting stuff in here.

Also, a friend of mine at the FU who is taking classes with David Harvey this semester has been inspired to start a blog discussion forum. Harvey gave two free, public talks in the last week, but I didn't find out in time. I'll try to post details if I find out in time, and here's the blog:

http://harveydiscussion.tumblr.com/

-abc

Yogic alternative to capitalism

2009-07-14T06:39:00.001-07:00

I came across this book After Capitalism: PROUT's vision for a new world. It was written by a monk from the organization Ananda Marga. (in another life I used to be very involved with them, but now allergic to transendentalism, dogmatism, and the whole Guru concept).

Still their Guru was sort of an interesting figure. He developed a socio-political system called PROUT, i.e. progressive utilization theory. It's been many years since I read anything about this, so do not know the details. But I think some points would connect to that k-punk post about anti-capitalism and energy.

Anyway, I am always very sceptical now about anything that hints of mysticism. But I think PROUT is at least grounded in rational argument. And the book has an intro by Noam Chomsky, which to me gives it some credibility. If anything, this is another angle/perspective..

Have not read the book myself, but thought I would post the summary now, for general info, and maybe buy it. It might, at some point, be an interesting addition to the discussions.

After Capitalism

- Dada Maheshvarananda

This book offers a better, practical alternative to global capitalism. It explains the Progressive Utilization Theory, or Prout, a socio-economic model based on decentralized economic democracy, cooperative enterprise, the ethics of inclusion and universal spiritual values. The book asserts that capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction, based as it is on greed, intense competition and tremendous concentration of wealth. In contrast, Prout provides a model of economic development grounded in universal values. It seeks to balance regional self-reliant economic development with ecological protection, and encourages creativity and innovation.

(Jeroen)

2009-07-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

This weeks reading (for tuesday 14th) is the first chapter of a thousand plateaus - rhizome.
download it here

Foucault and Lefebvre

2009-07-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Here is the link to the Foucault article I mentioned in which he presents his concept of 'heterotopias'. Heterotopias are sites in which space and time have an alternative ordering to the dominant spatial and temporal orderings of a society. Could possibly be usefully applied to understanding non-capitalist spaces.

http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en.html

And an introduction to Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space (1974). For those not familiar with his work, Lefebvre is a French Marxist theorist of space who argued that capitalism reproduces itself through the production of an 'abstract space' which is fragmented and hierarchical and dominates over 'lived space'

http://www.notbored.org/space.html

Maybe these could be our two readings one week?

Lucrezia

D/G, desire and scarcity

2009-07-08T05:18:00.000-07:00

Here's two related Posts I found on the theme of desire and scarcity that we spoke about last time - going into some more philosophical depth...

http://larvalsubjects.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/scarcity/

http://larvalsubjects.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/how-revolutionary-is-desire-anway/

As I mentioned last time I think it would be really cool to try and author a text collectively - perhaps the theme of scarcity would be a good place to start?.. I will try to write some initial thoughts/notes on this and put them up on the blog and then other can add their thought and change / edit what we have?...

"We might mention that the dialogue of scarcity is something we really see beginning in the early modern social contract theorists (most importantly Hobbes and Locke). But scarcity wasn’t the dominant paradigm previously. Most medievals and ancient Greeks emphasize that nature provides humans with the necessary goods in a great deal of abundance – as long as humans, as part of good political regimes, take steps to ensure that the human population is supportable by nature and that the desires of the citizens do not become uncontrollable.

The argument that nature produces abundance rather than scarcity (or that nature is friendly as opposed to hostile) is a plausible one: humans are quite omnivorous, able to eat numerous types of food and find many different kinds of food delicious – from meat and fish to fruits to vegetables to nuts to grains to sea plants. Humans can reside in a wide array of environments. A properly small number of humans can easily find abundant resources for commodious and moderate living."

Basic Economics

2009-07-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Natalia has kindly made a document about basic economics with a glossary and some exerpts from Adam Smith etc..

click here to download it

So for next tuesday (7th) we will read this along with the k-punk text below. Hopefully we can grasp a good understanding of the assumptions of neo-liberal economics and go someway towards formulating a critique of it.......

Anti-capital

2009-07-03T04:57:00.000-07:00

Here's the K-punk reading for next tuesday (7th july):

K-punk - Anti-capital (some modest beginnings)

I think it would be good to look not just at the article but also at the discussion section at the end, as thats where some of the most most interesting points come up (rational actor theory etc..)

I'm also very keen on the idea of energistic economies or energistic critiques of capitalism - perhaps i will try to make some notes on this for the meeting.

Andres

Adorno mk. II (banging on)

2009-07-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

First of all I found a link to a copy of "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" written by Adorno and Horkheimer, which I think is really a must read. It's located here.

Second, here's the excerpt from Adorno in Minima Moralia which uses the example of film cliche. Then after that I'll stop banging Adornianonandonandonandon.

"In general, subjective class membership roday shows a mobility that allows the rigidity of the economic order itself to be forgotten: rigid things can always be moved about. Even the individual's powerlessness to calculate his economic fate in advance makes its own contribution to this comforting mobility. Downfall is decided not by incompetence but by an opaque hierarchical structure in which no-one, scarcely even those at the very top, can feel secure: an egalitarian threat. When, in the most successful film of the year, the heroic squadron leader returns to be harrassed by petty-bourgeois caricatures as a drug-store jerk, he not only gives the spectators an occasion for unconscious gloating but in addition strengthens them in their consciousness that all men are really brothers. Extreme injustice becomes a deceptive facsimile of justice, disqualification of equality. Sociologists, however, ponder the grimly comic riddle: where is the proletariat?" From fragment 124. Puzzle-picture in Minima Moralia.

Ed

2009-06-30T04:54:00.000-07:00

Here's an alternative link to the reading for tonights session - as the one sent out on the list did not seem to work:

Isabell Lorey: Governmentality and Self-Precarization, On the normalization of cultural producers

As we decided last time, we will now try to meet every week instead of twice a month!

Adorno Reading

2009-06-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, here's the Adorno article I propose we should look at in the next session. As it's quite short I thought it could be quite interesting to examine some parts of the text quite closely. Despite it's length, I think it's quite an interesting present to unwrap. I've read it several times now and I'm still pulling more from it the more I read it. I think it follows up some tangents we've looked at with Deleuze's political theory quite nicely.

"126 [Minima Moralia]

I.Q. – The modes of behaviour appropriate to the most advanced state of technical development are not confined to the sectors in which they are actually required. So thinking submits to the social checks on its performance not merely where they are professionally imposed, but adapts to them its whole complexion. Because thought has by now been perverted into the solving of assigned problems, even what is not assigned is processed like a problem. Thought, having lost autonomy, no longer trusts itself to comprehend reality, in freedom, for its own sake. This it leaves, respectfully deluded, to the highest-paid, thereby making itself measurable. It behaves, even in its own eyes, as if it had constantly to demonstrate its fitness. Even when there is no nut to crack, thinking becomes training for no matter what exercise. It sees its objects as mere hurdles, a permanent test of its own form. Considerations that wish to take responsibility for their subject-matter and therefore for themselves, arouse suspicion of being vain, windy, asocial self-gratification. Just as for neo-positivists knowledge is split into accumulated sense-experience and logical formalism, the mental activity of the type for whom unitary knowledge is made to measure, is polarized into the inventory of what he knows and the spot-check on his thinking-power: every thought becomes for him a quiz either of his knowledgeability or his aptitude. Somewhere the right answers must be already recorded. Instrumentalism, the latest version of pragmatism, has long been concerned not merely with the application of thought but the a priori condition of its form. When oppositional intellectuals endeavour, within the confines of these influences, to imagine a new content for society, they are paralysed by the form of their own consciousness, which is modelled in advance to suit the needs of this society. While thought has forgotten how to think itself, it has at the same time become its own watchdog. Thinking no longer means anything more than checking at each moment whether one can indeed think. Hence the impression of suffocation conveyed even by all apparently independent intellectual productions, theoretical no less than artistic. The socialization of mind keeps it boxed in, isolated in a glass case, as long as society is itself imprisoned. As thought earlier internalized the duties exacted from without, today it has assimilated to itself its integration into the surrounding apparatus, and is thus condemned even before the economic and political verdicts on it come fully into force."

-Ed

2009-06-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

Deleuze teaching Meno's dog geometry!