Michel Henry: Barbarism (1987/2012)

Barbarism represents a critique, from the perspective of Michel Henry’s unique philosophy of life, of the increasing potential of science and technology to destroy the roots of culture and the value of the individual human being. For Henry, barbarism is the result of a devaluation of human life and culture that can be traced back to the spread of quantification, the scientific method and technology over all aspects of modern life. The book develops a compelling critique of capitalism, technology and education and provides a powerful insight into the political implications of Henry’s work. It also opens up a new dialogue with other influential cultural critics, such as Marx, Husserl, and Heidegger.

First published in French in 1987, Barbarism aroused great interest as well as virulent criticism. Today the book reveals what for Henry is a cruel reality: the tragic feeling of powerlessness experienced by the cultured person. Above all he argues for the importance of returning to philosophy in order to analyse the root causes of barbarism in our world.

Originally published in French as La Barbarie by Editions Grasset & Fasquelle, 1987
Translated by Scott Davidson
Publisher Continuum, London/New York, 2012
Volume 95 of Continuum Impacts
ISBN 1441132651, 9781441132659
168 pages

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Yawn: Art Strike 1990-1993, 1-45 (1989-1992)

“YAWN was an anonymous publication devoted to the Art Strike 1990-1993 and related issues. YAWN came out of several P.O. Boxes in the period from 1989 to 1992, sporadic in response to the responses and additional submissions that it had received to the issue before. Subtitled ‘A Sporadic Critique of Culture’, its scope was actually narrower than this would imply, if simply because its contributors came largely from the Mail Art, Neoist, and even more obscure networks which were internationally active at the time. The contents of this archive reflect this somewhat narrow focus.” (publisher)

“Campaign launched in 1986 by Stewart Home which called upon all artists to cease their artistic work between January 1, 1990 and January 1, 1993. Unlike the art strikes proposed by Gustav Metzger and the Art Workers Coalition in the 1960s, it was not merely a boycott of art institutions through artists, but a provocation of artists addressing their understanding of art and their identity as artists.

The Art Strike 1990-1993 campaign received next to no attention in contemporary gallery and museum art, but resonated chiefly in artistic subcultures, above all Neoism and Mail Art. “Art Strike Action Committees”, often run by single activists, existed in London, Ireland, Baltimore, Albany/NY, San Francisco, Montevideo, and Uruguay. An Art Strike newsletter “YAWN” was anonymously published by Lloyd Dunn in Iowa City and appeared in forty five issues during the strike period.” (wikipedia)

Most of YAWN was published anonymously, however, the following persons and organizations did get explicit credit for works that appeared in the publication: Agressive School of Cultural Workers — Iowa Chapter, Karen Eliot, Scott McLeod, Word Strike Action Committee NY, Anticopyright, Monty Cantsin (Istvan Kantor), Theatre of Sorts, Tim Ore, Smile, Andrej Tisma, Void-Post, Géza Perneczky, Lettre Documentaire, Pseudo-Karen Elliot, Liz Was, T. Marvin Lowes, Anatoly Zyyxx, Ralph Johnson, Stephen Perkins, Neal Keating/Bob Black, Eleutheria, Plaster Cramp Press, Leisure, Ben G. Price, Dumpster Times, The Exploding Cinema, T. Hibbard, Art Abolition Committee, Hakim Bey, International Art Dump, Gudgefuck, Sadie Plant, Institute for Research in Neoism, Turner Scientific, Geoff Huth, Bob Grumman, Art Strike 1990-2000, Keter Elyon, John Kennedy, I.M.I., Von Lechner, Dharma Combat, Lang Thompson, Fri-Art/Inexistent/Iput-ruine, Cracker Jack Kid, Blaster Al Ackerman, Decentralized Spanish Art Congress, Media Fast, ASAC UK, ASAC Eire, ASAC Baltimore, ASAC Latino America, ASAC CA.

The Art Strike Papers (online version of the book edited by Stewart Home)

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Benjamin Noys: The Persistence of the Negative: A Critique of Contemporary Continental Theory (2010)

The Persistence of the Negative offers an original and compelling critique of contemporary Continental theory through a rehabilitation of the negative. Against the usual image of rival thinkers and schools, Benjamin Noys identifies and attacks a shared consensus on the primacy of affirmation and the expelling of the negative that runs through the leading figures of contemporary theory: Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour, Antonio Negri, and Alain Badiou.

While positioning the emergence of affirmative theory as a political response to the corrosive effects of contemporary capitalism, Noys argues that, all too often, affirmation is left re-affirming the conditions of the present rather than providing the means to disrupt and resist them.

Refusing to endorse an anti-theory position that would read theory as the symptom of political defeat, The Persistence of the Negative traverses these leading thinkers in a series of lucid readings to reveal the disavowed effects of negativity operating within their work.

Overturning the limits of recent debates on the politics of theory, The Persistence of the Negative vigorously defends the return of theory to its political calling.

Publisher Edinburgh University Press, 2010
ISBN 0748638636, 9780748638635
196 pages

review (Baylee Brits, Parrhesia)
review (Raphael Schlembach, Shift Magazine)

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