Helge

helge [at] udk-berlin.de

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“ Das Junge-Mädchen hat die Mission erhalten, eine überall düster gewordene Warenwelt erneut zu verzaubern, die Katastrophe bis in die Freude und Sorglosigkeit zu verlängern. In ihm kündigt sich eine Konsumform zweiten Grades an: der Konsum der Konsumenten. Wenn man sich an den Anschein hält, was in vielen Fällen legitim geworden ist, müsste man sagen, dass es der Ware mit dem Jungen-Mädchen gelungen ist, das Nicht-Warenmäßige voll und ganz zu annektieren. ”

- Tiqqun, Grundbausteine einer Theorie des Jungen-Mädchens
“ Es gilt zu entdecken, daß an der Wurzel dessen, was wir erkennen und was wir sind, nicht die Wahrheit und das Sein steht, sondern die Äußerlichkeit des Zufälligen. ”

- Michel Foucault: Nietzsche, die Genealogie, die Historie
“ Die Städte sind zunächst die Sitze der höchsten wirtschaftlichen Arbeitsteilung; sie erzeugen darin so extreme Erscheinungen, wie in Paris den einträglichen Beruf des Quatorzième: Personen, durch Schilder an ihren Wohnungen kenntlich, die sich zur Dinerstunde in angemessenem Kostüm bereit halten, um schnell herangeholt zu werden, wo sich in einer Gesellschaft 13 am Tisch befinden. ”

- Georg Simmel, Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben, 1903

Soviet subculture

Stilyagi were members of a youth subculture that existed from the late 1940s until the early 1960s in the USSR. Stilyagi generally opposed the mainstream Soviet ideology of that time and were primarily distinguished by their snappy or unfashionate clothing, considered politically incorrect and contrasting the communist-socialist realities.

From the movie Stilyagi (2008):

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“ Born originals, how comes it to pass that we die copies? ”

- Edward Young, 1759

Touchable Holography

“ Only workers producing for Apple are given a stool to sit while working, and all others must stand. ”

- Sun Danyong commited suicide
“ The contemporary array of brands and models supplies a useful code of social status to offset the anonymity of driving, and the vertiginous altitude of Delhi’s class system comes through admirably, even on the horizontal roads. Car brands regulate the relationships between drivers: impatient Mercedes flash Marutis to let them through the throng, and Marutis move aside. BMW limousines are so well insulated that passengers don’t even hear the incessant horn with which chauffeurs disperse everything in their path. Canary-yellow Hummers lumber over the concrete barriers from the heaving jam into the empty bus lanes and accelerate illegally past the masses – and traffic police look away, for what cop is going to risk his life to challenge the entitlement of rich kids? Yes, the privileges of brand rank are enforced by violence if need be: a Hyundai driver gets out of his car to kick in the doors of a Maruti that kept him dawdling behind, while young men in a Mercedes chase after a Tata driver who dared abuse them out of the window, running him down and slapping him as if he were an insubordinate kid. ”

- Capital Gains
“ The only true question today is: does global capitalism contain antagonisms strong enough to prevent its indefinite reproduction? Four possible antagonisms present themselves: the looming threat of ecological catastrophe; the inappropriateness of private property for so-called intellectual property; the socio-ethical implications of new techno-scientific developments, especially in biogenetics; and last, but not least, new forms of social apartheid—new walls and slums. ”

- Slavoj Zizek: How to Begin from the Beginning
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