[NetBehaviour] My name is [Your Name Here] and I am an Accelerationist

Rob Myers rob at robmyers.org
Thu Apr 21 22:11:03 CEST 2016


I think Haraway is a good historical example. Their Cyborg Manifesto was
written against sclerotic essentialist-/eco- feminism and amidst the
decline of left politics in the US during the Reagan era. They take the
Cold War figure of the cyborg and re-purpose it to critique all of this.
There are strong parallels to Srnicek & Williams' current argument that
"folk politics" is insufficient to bring about political change.
 
I don't think that Accelerationist aesthetics are even slightly resolved
yet, and that's a good thing. In "Accelerationist Art" I mention some
examples and possibilities, particularly art that tries to exit the
confines of Contemporary Art's simulacrum of freedom. Maybe we can come
up with something here. :-) In general, Accelerationist aesthetics would
presumably be about increasing the capabilities of our reason in/via
art, which I think would require increasing the capabilities of our
perception. One view of this would be something like Cultural Analytics,
the ability to deal in millions of images or other cultural/perceptible
phenomena at a time. But then there's the singular power of myth and
icons/iconography to guide and organise our thought and perception.
Which brings us back to the quarantine zone in which we can look at
Hyperstition...
 
I think that a) and c) are good positions to combine. If they lead to
b), that's great. If not, hopefully understanding why not will lead to
positive action in other ways.
 
On Thu, 21 Apr 2016, at 06:25 AM, dave miller wrote:
> I don't understand what accelerationism is yet, as I need to read a
> lot more - and a few times - and let it sink in. I find it hard to
> understand, to be honest.
>
> I'm interested though in the connection with Donna Haraway's Cyborg
> Manifesto
>
> And I'd like to know more about the accelerationist aesthetic, what it
> is, and why.
>
> I'd like to know the general view from people on this list - as we are
> all new media/ net art/ media techy types , who have been
> experimenting with art, networked technology and politics for ages, is
> this something we should
> a) take very seriously
> b) embrace
> c) be sceptical of?
> d) be scared of?
> e) wish that we'd thought of
 
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