Art and Postcapitalism: Aesthetic Labour, Automation and Value Production

159 Pages·2019·0.712 MB·English

by  Dave Beech

Art and Postcapitalism
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Art and Postcapitalism
Aesthetic Labour, Automation
and Value Production
Dave Beech
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First published 2019 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Dave Beech 2019
The right of Dave Beech to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3925 2 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3924 5 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0508 9 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0510 2 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0509 6 EPUB eBook
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed
and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are
expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
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To my art teachers
In memory of Stroud Cornock,
artist and teacher
1938–2019
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: Postcapitalism, Critique and Art 1
1. What is Postcapitalism? 14
2. Art’s Hostility to Capitalism 33
3. Artists and the Politics of Work 45
4. Avant-Gardism and the Meanings of Automation 64
5. Laziness and the Technologies of Rest 78
Conclusion: Gratuity, Digitalisation and Value 93
Notes 104
Bibliography 134
Index 144
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Acknowledgements
This book was written while I was a Professor of Art at Valand Academy,
University of Gothenburg, and a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Chelsea
College of Arts, London. I want to thank colleagues at both institutions
for their continued support and critical interrogation of the ideas that I set
out in this book. I also want to thank comrades in the ‘Marxism in Culture’
lecture series based at University College London.
An early version of my analysis of the forms of activity – and types
of subjectivity – included in contemporary postcapitalist theory was
delivered in October 2017 at AltMFA, an alternative educational organ-
isation established by artists for artists in London. Also, in October 2017,
I gave a presentation on the concept of postcapitalism for the Collection
Collective seminar ‘In the Future All Our Homes Will Be Museums’ at
the Kunsthalle Bratislava. Since both presentations were shaped, in large
part, by an email conversation that I had with Peter Hudis about the
transformation of work and life in postcapitalism, I want to thank Peter
for his generosity in explaining some key principles for thinking about
postcapitalism.
An earlier version of my argument about postcapitalism in relation to
questions of work rather than art was developed as an article for Parse
journal. As part of the open peer review process I am grateful to have
received excellent feedback from Sarah Brouillette and Jasper Bernes. I
also want to thank Marina Vishmidt for making this possible. I gave the
first presentation of my rereading of theories of nonalienated labour at
the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, in 2017, at the invitation of
Gareth James. I am indebted to the audience for raising serious questions
about my methodology and conclusions. I hope that the arguments in
this book have been improved as a result, but I also hope that if problems
persist then I will hear about it.
My investigation of nonalienated labour was significantly extended and
improved by an email exchange with the great generosity of the Marxist
art historian Andrew Hemingway, for which I am deeply thankful. I have
also benefitted from exchanges with Jason Bowman, Andrea Phillips, Mick
Wilson, Tom Cubbin, Josefine Wikström, Bruno Gulli, Alberto Toscano
and Charles Esche. My thanks to Kim Charnley for comments on an early
draft and to Bryan Parkhurst for commenting in such detail on the first
full draft of the manuscript.
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acknowledgements . ix
Thanks also to Jakob Horstmann for making this book possible and for
making it better.
I would like to thank the CCW Graduate School for awarding me
research time to complete this book.
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