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Fwd: [AUT] OUT NOW ON METAMUTE.ORG - Warning: 'Situationism' used by 'Anti-Germans'

ps I'm not saying the SI = their 'recuperators', btw, just that one gets wary...

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ben Seymour <ben@xxxxxxxx>
Date: 28 April 2007 23:26:30 BST
To: "Autonomia, Operaismo, and Class Composition" <aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [AUT] OUT NOW ON METAMUTE.ORG - Warning: 'Situationism' used by 'Anti-Germans'

Hi J,

Thanks for the mails. I should point out again that the text on Copenhagen was by Stewart Home (not me), and the conference was organised by a group of people including Jakob Jakobsen (see the review for the others). Stewart took part in the discussion but neither he nor Mute nor I selected the participants (ie it wasn't 'our' conference). Not sure if you were clear on that, but sorry if I have misunderstood you.

I can forward this warning on to the organisers if you like, though really who hasn't used the SI these days? When last I looked they were even more obnoxiously part of the orthodoxy than the (so-called) 'creative class' - tho I admit the SI could at least come up with some trenchant slogans and thrilling dialectical inversions. Not something you could accuse Richard Florida of... In the visual arts dept of Goldsmiths college every third sentence begins 'Guy Debord said...' and ends with some horrific platitude about the irresistable subsumption of everything under capital. One gets pretty suspicious of ANYONE who mentions the SI.

back to the point: I don't know what made them want to have these anti-deutsch guys on the panel, but maybe it was out of a desire to broaden the discussion and not become ideologically closed, or because the anti-deutsch have glommed onto the SI (maybe they deserve each other?) and hence wanted to participate. I have heard plenty to make me want to keep well out of their way - not difficult in the UK where they are beyond the ordinary level of hyperobscurity enjoyed by left-wing sects.

actually we published a piece by Tadzio Mueller criticising their wacko pro-zionist nationalist anti-nationalism/ pro-US-capital-as-most-advanced-form-of-capitalism schtick a few years ago (the latter, even if one buys the idea of a relatively 'progressive' form of capitalism, is pretty funny in itself when you consider what a vanguard of retrogression the US has become). worth a read if you havent seen it already.

anyway, I did wonder at that line of Stewart's myself and I'm glad you bring it up. Has he heard something to suggest that the AD have a 'more interesting end'? I agree, it's hard to imagine what that might be.

If you like you could post a comment and request more info from Stewart via the 'comment' button next to the article on the Mute website and i hope he will give you his considered reply (I don't think he's signed up to autopsy). he's been known to engage in the odd disputation and I'm sure would like to clarify things... Failing that I'll ask him about it next week if he's back in email contact.

Thanks again for the mails, and I will make sure to let you and Dr Woo know when the Quadrelli text is published.

Best,
Ben

On 28 Apr 2007, at 21:18, Kurasje Archive wrote:

Hi again
 
I have read the account on the recent Situationist meeting in Copenhagen once more and came across the following:
 
"The second day was quite different in tone, beginning with an impassioned speech by a couple of German activists billed as Zwi Negator; this contribution was made from the perspective of the more interesting end of the 'Anti-Deutsche' movement. Zwi and Negator were using the Situationists as a springboard for getting people actively involved in contemporary politics and were clearly far more interested in this than an accurate assessment of the movement’s history"
 
I don't really care about the attempts to keep Situationism alive  -  that is none of my bussiness. I find it somehow interesting, but only if it keeps on provoking and making real critical distance to capitalism.
 
I don't know what these Zwi and Negator are actually doing, but if they in anyway are claiming some belongings to the 'Anti-Deutsche' movement they should not have be allowed any formal participation at your conference.
 
It might be that you are not aware of it, but the 'Anti-Deutsche' is a pro-capitalist provocation on the left scene of Germany. And it does not make any difference if they come to you with positions, that you may find among "the more interesting end of the 'Anti-Deutsche' movement".
 
From your account it is also explicitly clear that the interest of these persons is not Situationism, but some political project of their own. You are being used !
 
I will strongly suggest that present days Situationists make themselves clear about and against the 'Anti-German'-movement.
 
J.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Seymour"
To: "'Autonomia, Operaismo, and Class Composition'"
Subject: [AUT] OUT NOW ON METAMUTE.ORG
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:18:57 +0100


Hi, hope one or both of these stories will be of interest to some
people on this list - excuse the spamming.
Ben


M | U | T | E | __ rrrrrread it!

______________________________________________25 April 07 _


OUT NOW ON METAMUTE.ORG:

The End of Copenhagen?

by Stewart Home

The Situationists and the Creative Class are neck and neck in the competition
for most mythologised ‘avant garde’. In riot-torn Copenhagen at the
end of last
month the two converged. While the conference There's Life After Death –
Scandinavian Situationism in Perspective was laying to rest
delusions about the
SI, partisans of the creative class seized on the riots as a
victory for the new creative
vanguardists. Stewart Home rattles some cage

http://www.metamute.org/en/End-of-Copenhagen

*

The Circular Story of Black Arts Policy

by Geoff Cox

Richard Hylton's recent book The Nature of the Beast: Cultural
Diversity and the
Visual Arts Sector indicts the multiple failures of state backed
multiculturalism through
a fine-combed history of visual arts policy in the UK. In this
adaptation of a talk given at
the launch of the book, Geoff Cox reads off the charges

http://www.metamute.org/en/Foreclosing-The-Nature-of-the-Beast

*

SUBSCRIBE TO MUTE MAGAZINE HERE:
http://www.metamute.org/taxonomy/term/3480

FOR A LIST OF STOCKISTS:
http://www.metamute.org/node/254

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