diedrichsen-on surplus value in art

8/9/2019 DIEDRICHSEN-On Surplus Value in Art

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Just what is surp lus value or Mehrwertwhen we talk about art andculture? Changing mate rial condit ions, market'dynamics and culturalideals are reshaping how this question may be answered today.Drawing on fresh readings of Marxist and postmodern thought, re-nowned German cultural critic Diedrich Diederichsen considers thecurrent "crisis of va luation in the arts ."

Published in English with the German original and a translationinto the Dutch.

ON [SURPLUS]VALUE INART

I S B N

DIEDRICHDIEDERICHSEN

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ON (SURPLUS]VALUE IN ARTDIEDRICHDIEDERICHSEN

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1 Tansla tors' Note,The autho rs argumen tma kes use ofthe act t ha , in Germ an, theword Mehrwerfme ans w o different thing s,depe nding on whether t is being use d neveryday co nve rsa tion or as a e chnical te rmof Marxist economics , ln eve ryday conve rsa tion' it is mo re or less equivalent to theEnglish pa yoff" or the more rece nt and

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bus iness -oriente d va lue- added", ln Marxi ,Iec onomcs. it is the original Ge rma n ermfor ' surplus value' ,There is no single Engli ,I,word hat ca ptures both of thes e meaning',Ihave herefore chos en o eave t in Ge r m ~ "

while g loss ing its va rious occu rren cesjust en ough o perm t the read er o follow til

argume nt.

IExistence, Extra Nice

" W her e is th e Mehrwert?" - in English: the " payoff" - asks th ep 'rson on the street .l What he has in mind is no t Karl Marx's'on ep t of " surplus value" (which is ho w Mehrwert is directly

1!'L1n la ted from th e German), but an extra value, an addedIll ' addit ional value, or a bonus, to u se a word that means the

ltlne thing in mos t languages. If in everyday parlance, Mehr'" /'( is an addit ional value that can be realized in re tur n for ap 'c ia l effort or in connection with an exceptional situation,

IIlI' Ma rx, by contras t, Mehrwert is the daily bread and butterIll' the capitalist economy. Th a t economy must constantly

' n era te Meh rwert. Th e tendency to increase is a natural attril u te o f va lue. In d eed, it is based on the exp loitation of laborpower , a nd the fact that it appears to come abou t naturally isI I'e i ely its grea tes t trick. A bonus, by contrast, is accordedIh ' s ta tu s of an exception . An d it is precisely such a "bonus"Illtll i s be ing demanded when people ask where the Mehrwert

, l:s pec ia lly when they are speaking of "artistic Mehrwert",w hich w ill be the focus of this essay .

Artistic Mehrwert tends to come up when there is a de -li ' , to jus tify a special effort made or expense incurred by an

1111 st, or in the course of the production of an artwork. Or wh enI iNa ma tter of weighing whether or no t a certain subject or

" I proa ch lends itself t o ar t istic t reatment : is there an addedvullll: invo lved in treating it artist ically, or would it be betterI rved by a journalistic report? This expression is no t just used

hV ' ri tica l or skeptica l recipients an d consumers. I t is alsoqui lc co mmon in the discussions of panels an d juries whose

lib it is to eva luate artistic pr o jec ts, whether these be for ar t'h oo ls, funding bodies or professional prizes . Fo r the most

II 11 ' 1, howe ver, the issue of artistic Mehrwert is raised whenIlbjcc ts are watching over their ou tflows an d inflows of atten

lill l1, a nd wondering whether or not it is worth their troubleIII und ert ak e a process of reception that is time-consuming orhllu nd up with other inconveniences . On e tends to hear thatI ru oul d be w orth the tro uble, provided there is an artistic Mehr-

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wert, or payoff. Thus, when art and its enjoyment are at issue,artistic Mehrwe r t is no t just a bonus in the sense of "Whatextra do I get?", bu t a conditio sine qu a non . In this view, ar tis a phenomenon that plays ou t entirely - from beginning toen d - in the "bonus realm" and hence must always generateMehrwert, just like capitalism an d capitalists .

Yet the world of ar t production concerns a particular

kind of Mehrwert. Both the capitalist an d the artistic varietyhelp to maintain a process that, like breathing an d circulation,must continue uninterrupted in order for the organism to survive an d they therefore feel equally natural. But under Marx'sconception of capitalism, Mehrwert, as "surplus value", is alsosubject to th e law of value in general, which determines allactivity under capitalist conditions and both rationalizes an doccults the phenomenon of exchange between human beings.

"Value, therefore, d oes no t have its description branded onits forehead; it rather transforms every product of labor intoa social hieroglyphic." 2

By "hieroglyphic", Marx means not simply a sign bu tabove all a sign that is no t immediat ely decipherable. Valueis determined by the average amount of labor that is sociallynecessary to produce a given product; it is informed by th ecountless acts of individual (living) labor performed by individual workers . Thus doub ly transformed - first, abstractedfrom individual labor into social labor, an d second, concretizedas the particular commodity or product - this hieroglyphicspeaks of something, bu t it is impossible to tell by looking atit what it is speaking of.

I f we nonetheless feel that i t makes sense to function

under this general law, which seems both natural an d puzzling,an d to participate in the process of increasing value, that isbecause there are religions, world views, an d ideologies, thatcontinue to offer apparently sensible explanations for life unde r the law of value. In th e case of art, however, the legendaryartistic Mehrwert, is no t - or at least does no t seem to be -created under the sway of any globally dominant law. Instead,

2 Ka rl Marx, Capital, A C itique o f P o liti cal worth, Mddlesex, Eng land, Pengu in Books,Economy, trans. Ben Fowkes [Hammonds- 1986 [1976 [1. U 67.

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il refe rs to the temporary or exceptional suspension oflaws.Th is sus pension is connected, first of all, with the exceptionalHlltu s o f ar t in bourgeois society : its autonomy . Secondly,b ca u se ar t is regarded as an ally of desire, it is accepted ason c of those forces that refuse to fall in line with the imposed,' ocrce d consistency of life . Thirdly, it is also demanded of

I I I ' l th at i t , unlike th e rest oflife, be particularly full of mean

Ing. T ru e, it is supposed to be as bewildering an d chaotic asiiI" and th e world themselves, with their landscapes an d vicis-j udes, bu t ultimately it deals with the fact that - an d th e

wny that - all this is intended . Ar t clings to society or life orothcr sys te ms suspected of being meaningless an d contingent,tnd the n in the end, it suddenly comes up with an originator

wh is res ponsible for the whole mess. That is sufficient consollIlion for even the harshest poetry of hopelessness an d negaton: th e fact that there is someone who wrote it down .

T here are other justifications for artistic Mehrwert, bu t[II ' rc is no need to elaborate them here. Autonomy, desire

lind au t horship - these ar e no t only the most common andIHos t symptomatic; they also reveal the important featurei hUl all three have in common with those no t mentioned: they'orrcspo nd , as legitimating discourses, to the great rationales

1111' ort's exceptionalism. Thus, the colloquial use of the word"[ ('hrwert that I cited at the beginning of this essay refers toIh ' fac t that ar t is "good for something" an d therefore has aIi ' : it is legitimate and must exist, despite the fact that itsIII 'oning lies precisely in no t being useful. Th e fact that theword Me hrwert is used to describe this is no t as idioticallyIlti lilar ian an d intrumentalistic as it might seem. Already in

MlIrx, M ehrwe rt is a figure of meaninglessness . It keepsIll11cthing going whqse constituent parts (labor, the produc-I on a n d distribution of products, exchange) would already bejll tificd in themselves (and only in an d of themselves) an dI II ' r ' ~ re have no need for further legitimation or additional( 1lllSliwe nt parts. Mehrwert is meaningless and can only beI , itimate d by pointing to the fact that without it, the entire'l1pita list machine would grind to a halt. While ar t is no t mean-1\ 1 ss b u t m uc h too meaningful (since it is always associated

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with intent), it to o requires additional explanations . To describe a lack, say, no t by describing what is lacking bu t bydescribing an analogous lack, definitely corresponds to a certain rhetorical figure, bu t at the moment its name escapes me .

Imagine a situation in which someone is telling a jokethat makes fun of people with a certain kind of disability. Th edisability in quest ion prevents on e from articulating properly;it causes one to lisp. Th e punch line must be delivered by simul

ating the speech imped iment, with a frustrated : "You thinkthat-th funny?" In this case, however, the person who is tellingthe joke at a party notices that an acquaintance with a lisphas entered the kitchen where everyone stands listening. Hefrantically tries to come up with an alternative punch line,another way to en d the joke, an d keeps inventing new strandsof the basic storyline to gain time . As he does so, the joke becomes increasing ly dull an d incoherent, an d he loses more an dmore of his audienc e, until finally th e acquaintance who lispsbecomes exasperated an d shouts ou t from the audience, "Youthink that-th funny?"This story mirrors the trivial interplay

between art's legitimating discour ses - evoking the theoreticaleffort that is expended on their behalf - and an audience that,simply (and stupidly), asks what makes something art, askswhat its "punch line " is.

Th e fact that the public identifies'1egitimacy with punchlines an d proudly and pretentiously demands them as Mehr-w e rt is something it has learned. Cultural policymakers, whosejob it is to make what is no t useful useful (which is currentlyall the rage an d takes no great effort), are by definition unableto think any differently. A coaliti on of the vulgar avantgarde,museum educators an d witty artists has brought into th e worldthe idea (which is no t entirely new) that, since Duchamp, thegoal of ar t has been to deliver a punch line, that on e crucialmaneuver, that little extra inspiration. This "extra inspiration"is made up of a number of different elements. First, it involvesthe communicative strategies of advertising, for which it isimportant that a brand, a product, and a campaign be organ ized around a single, identifiable, bu t surprising "claim," asit is termed in the industry. I t also involves the conceit - itself

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II resu lt of modern art's need for legitimation - that every workIllu st create its own justification, indeed that it must at on e111 1 the sa me time be both a genre and the sing le existing inIllnce of that genre .This requirement is a product of the anti'onve nt ional postulates of the avantgarde an d neo-avantgarde,

III d in a se n se it is perfectly compatible with th e extra inspiraton, the claim, an d the "show-stopper", since it avoids and is

illl 'n t on avoiding anythi ng that is dictated in advance.

Ad vertising seeks to eliminate all pre-existing assumptio nsIl'om the ac t of communication. I t does so in the interest ofI 0 hing as many consumers as possible. Fo r entirely differentI '080 ns, the ar t world sustains a coalition between, on the onehnnd, a jus tified avantgardistic attack on conventions an d on allI III s deriv ing from materials or from craft an d its traditionsIn I, on th e other hand, th e interest of certain collectors an dinstitu tio n s in the ahsence of prior assumptions and precondili ns. T hese collectors an d institutions ar e able to use an ar tIhus purge d of history as an ideal object for reinvestment, beil lhrou gh cultural-political instrumentalization or throughllilanc ial s p eculation . Th e relativization (to the point of insigniII 'ui1ce) of the material ar t object has been conceived and poslulu ted ei ther politically (as a critique of institutions, a critiqueor lhe ma t erial conditions of ar t as a social institution) or inI . rm s of the philosophy of art (positing th e visual arts as th eII I ' lo-art of all the arts, ar t as a language game, the logic of(ll'Opos itio ns) . I t now converges at th e level of social symptoms(di s ou rse types, attitudes, an d fashions) w ith its intellectualhi Horica l opposite : art's leveling out by speculators' and governII I 'nts' in ter est in communication and theme park entertainment.

T h e common denominator in this ugly synthesis is thed ' mand for punch lines an d Mehrwert. An d it is interesting toIIOle that this demand finds a counterpart in the psychologicalIII i ude o f certain artists. Their attitude ha s sought to counterIhi s syn th esis, an d its taste for punch lines, in an individualistic{lild vo luntarist ic way. I have in mine! th e tendency of artists" differe nt as Salvador Dati and Martin Kippenberger - both ofwhom, how ever , were anything bu t wholly incompatible withI II ult u re of punch lines, in their tendency to drag ou t an d de ':

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lay or refuse to deliver them . In Dali's case, there is th e of enrepeated legend - which he himself was fond of embellishingof how he loved to drag out and delay his physical pleasure.As a child, he found special gratification in dragging ou t the actof crapping to interminable lengths, while as a teenager heliked to have elaborate efforts made to delay his ow n orgasm .He ha d already recognized that his audience was primarilyconcerned

with the product rather than the process, an d no teven the entire product but just the tiny remainder that makesit complete. That extra part ultimately makes up an d justifies the entire exceptionalistic, signification-interrupting enterprise of art. For him, of course, the process - his life as anartist - was far more important than the product.

Martin Kippenberger, who was a legendary joke telleran d party entertainer, also focused on th e various ways ofdragging out an d delaying punch lines. He told endless, repetitive jokes, bu t he never let the listener forget that somethingwas coming . All th e same, that "something" either never came

or di d so in a purposely unsatisfying way. Kippenberger'sspeeches, which were invariably introduced with the words,"I am no t one for fine speeches .. . " have numerous counter-parts in his practical work. Uniike pure seriality, which stilldraws its power from the fact that it exhibits the principle ofits production, Kippenberger preferred to work with narrative structures that ar e emphatically organized aroundthe prospect of a culminating punch line or breakthroughthat were nevertheless always withheld . Perhaps the bestexample of this principle is a work based on Matt Groening'scomic figures Akbar and Jeff. All of th e strips in this series

(which is widely carried by American city listings magazinesan d media program guides) contain twenty-four or thirty-twopanels, all of which are identical except for the last one; th estory is told entirely through the dialogue. I t is only in the finalimage that there is a visible change. Kippenberger appropriated strips from this series an d altered them in minor ways,bu t he always left ou t the last image, so that th e punch linenever comes.

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' I'll 's e indiv idual an d voluntaristic attacks on the problem of th epunch line may be ranked somewhere on a scale between honlH'uble a nd obsessive . They demonstrate how important and attenIlv ' ar t ists have been aware of the problem on some level. Ofourse, the countermeasures themselves tend to assume the'horacte r of punch lines. And even in the case of works that

I' s itu ate d completely outside of this logic, the training ofmu

lim educators, the testimonies of juries and the briefings oneI jves on guided tours, all help to perpetuate its mechanism.,' 0 I es the vast oral culture of th e visual arts :Today, there are

v 'r mo re students, collectors, and other denizens of the ar twor ld, a nd thanks to exhibit ions, symposia, openings, an d specIII ' Ies, they have ever more opportunities for conversationsIInong large r and larger numbers of participants. Th e result isI ' orres po n ding increase in th e number of art-related stories

1II1d of anecdo tes about artworks an d their ideas that circulate11 non- written form. Thanks to the fami lia r norms of public'olwersa tion, these stories also tend to be directed towards punch

Iii S. Indeed, the author of this essay freely admits that theI rror of the anecdotal has helped hi m a lot when presentinghi N dea s in se m inars an d lectures at academic ar t institutions.

To be sure, this culture of artistic punch lines is fueledI olh by enlightenment, reflexivity, dialogicity, an d oral cultureli N we ll as by advertising, reductionism, didacticism, an d a'on"lpulsive desire to communicate - an d is thus by no means' I 'u r a nd unamb iguous .Yet, this is only one side of the talk

Ilbou t M ehrwert, of th e slightly sullen demand for artistic Mehr-W1'I' f, T h e discussion remains ambiguous in that it yokes togetherIwo di ffere nt things: on the one hand, the conceptual accredi

IlIlion of ar tistic movements that abstract from concrete objects1111(.1 in tr oduce th e resultirig abstractions into critica l projects;II I the o ther, the instrumentalization ofthese abstractions by1111 ubb reviating culture of communication. I t combines the'X I nns ion of discourse through concept formation an d its relIu ,tion thro ug h slogans an d punch lines into a sometimesIII l i ~ t i ng u i s h a bl e principle for producing, bu t above all for re, ' iving, a rt : here is th e simultaneous success an d disaster of

I h ' mo d ern ist project.

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Opposed to th e punch line fetishists, there is another coalitionthat is made up of no less a heterogeneous mix of dubiousan d to various degrees legitimate arguments and no less a hete-rogeneous collection of people an d positions . This coalitiondefines artisti c Mehrwert as that aspect of ar t which cannot becaptured in words . These are people who already comp lainedthat the ideas contained in the paintings of Magritte could be

formulated in language . On the one hand, this group sus tainsth e justified call for a complex aesthetic experience that doesno t simply operate with key ideas an d punch lines. Bu t it alsosustains a reactio nary desire for total im mersion and the regressive, pre-reflexive happ iness that comes with being completelytransported by the aesthetics of overwhelment . Depending onwhich of these elements we focus on , M ehrw ert could eitherbe understood to engage a type of complexity that cannotsimply be taken in at a glance , the sense that there is more tobe known, ultimately an inquisitive sense that something islacking. Or else it could express th e demand for an entirely

"other world", a dreamlike quality undisturbed by discour seor reflection , such as has recentl y been offered by variou sforms of immersive art, as w ~ l las by the boosters of melan-cho ly and cu t ification.

All sides of the coalition have a clear artistic criterion,which they call Mehrwert , bu t they each mean something verydifferent by th e term. However, they do remain united in afear tha t there might be something being withheld from them,something to be known that hasn't ye t been said, or thatthe party - which is also undoubtedly always on their minds -might be happening somewhere else.

No w it is certainly the case that a large part of th e ar tindustry ma y be describ ed in this way, especially when thesubjects an d clients who populate it attempt to reach agree-ment abo u t criteria, on the basis of which they are willing toexpend their precious attention. Neverthe less, there are largeportions of the inner circles (o f the art world in particular)to whom th is description does no t apply. First of all, there arethe peop le who live an d work in ar t 's inner spheres, who havealwa ys known thei r profession exactly, an d who have no need

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oj' Rpccia l cr iteria to reach agreement about their roles . Indeed,p!'of


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hippie surrealism , GD R art, and finally the professional ven eerof contemporary "finish ." These are works that do no t haveto justify themselves by means of an idea or a surplus of immer-sion or intoxication . They are merely instances of a type ofproduction that is generally an d quite unspecifically recognizable as ar t . An d despite everything that might be said againstthe art that must be justified an d the mechanism by which itoperates (or is forced to operate), the type of ar t beyondlegitimation is, of course, something a great deal more boring .And much worse .

In sum, the type of art that generates speculative profitsseems to rest on the shoulders of the type that was requiredto justify itself in cycles of artistic Mehrwert formation , an d isnow able to make itself comfortable within a deeply felt, evennaturalized sense of legitimacy that has long since becometrivial an d false. Meanwhile , the ar t in need of justification an dits justifying discourses supply the grist for the ar t world's mill,its conversation an d its ideas . Bu t beneath this lies th e plumpflesh of the ar t economy - th e very old as new . In other words,it is not the case, a s is often claimed, that artworks an d artisticpractice s are forced to present themsel ves as ne w in order tobe successful, or that practices of novelty formation are su spect because they are misused for the .purpose of advancingcareers an d creating distinction in the market place. On th econtrary, this kind of novelty only succeeds in launching discourses. An d these in turn, procure certain advantages forthose wh o launch them, bu t such advantages cannot be com-pared to the actual material flesh on the bones of artisticsuccess. In order to form that, one must show up fresh like adebutante with so mething very familiar, an d in that case th emeasure of one's success is precisely th e fact that it generatesno discourse , or else reduces existing discourse to silence.Neither Lichtenstein no r Twombly, neither the German no rthe American "best sellers" of th e moment, sparked much .discourse when they were su ccessful. Kippenberger an d Basquiathad to die an d literally "keep quiet" before they were able tocommand the high prices they do today . Thomas Scheibitzan d Ne o Rauch are swathed in absolute "radio silence " as far

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li H o urse is concerned. Nevertheless, the system has to goIHt I I'Oducing its discourses an d excitements, its punch linesII"d I gi tima t ing ideas, since otherwise th e chalk upon whoseI I of Ruge n today's to p sellers are building would ru n out.I hU H, Mehrwe rt as a punch line or experiential surplus is alsoItt iiI' ct ly im p ortant for the primary form of the commercial

ploitation of ar t . Th e question now becomes: what kind ofI tHlII lodities are actually produced, and how do they becomett lllllble?

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Ar t as Commodity

What kind of commodity is the "ar t" commodity, and how isit produced by human labor? Wh o profits from it an d how?And is that profit Mehrwert, or surplus value? I would like toshift from considering the career of certain art as opposedto other art and look instead at th e economic and, if yo u will,

"value-theoretical" side of the production of contemporaryar t - at least th e type that is shown in galleries an d sold on themarket. What does the "daily life" of this artistic productionlook like when considered in light of th e now classical Marxistcategories oflabor, value an d price? In this chapter, I want toshow how th e exceptionalist economy of ar t is based, 'to a certain degree, on a rather regular economy. It is as challengingas it is appropriate to try this by using Marxist categories .

Now, we must distinguish between two different pro-cesses: (1) the everyday value of the art commodity an d it sprice an d (2) the speculative pric e an d its relationship to value;the latter being what people mostly think of when they speakof th e ar t commodity. Of course, there is a sense in which th etwo cannot be separated . Everything that has an everydayvalue as a commodity ca n theoretically also become an objectof speculation. Bu t most of the transactions made with com-modities in the realm of the visual arts do not (initially) involvespeculation, so that they are more compara ble with the regulareconomy of production and consumption, buying an d selling.Th e two values come into being in diffe rent ways. Yet thesedifferent ways have a common connection to the issue of reproduction an d uniqueness (3).

(1) Th e value of a product is calculated on th e basis of th eamount of labor that is socially necessary to prod uce it. At firstglance, it would seem to be complete ly preposterous to applythis Marxist definition of value to artworks. Fo r no t only in th ecase of modern artworks, bu t already in the case of classicalartworks that were produced for a market, the prices of two artworks on which the same amount of time was spent by those

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, ho painte d or sculpted them could differ enormously. Bu tIhili is no t the point. Price is no t value; on the contrary, it

lh ' fa lse semblance of value. As th e realization of value in aIV 'n act of exchange, it expresses th e notion that, while the

I I'i . , depen ds on a wide range of different variables, the logicIhul g verns th e relationship between price an d value is es

' I)tinlly so und, so that prices ma y be deemed reasonable or1111 'uso nable.

On e might object, however, that it is no t just absurd toI I'ivc the price of ar t objects from th e labor that is socially

II 'ssa ry to produce them; it is equally absurd to derive their/III/lIe in this way. Th e amounts of individual labor requiredIII I roduce artworks are simply too disparate. But, Marx speaksIII nn average value. True, one might respond, bu t in the caseII I m ode rn art, this average is based on such divergent individllnl data that they do no t pile up in th e middle an d fall offIlIwurd the edges, as in the case of classical averages, bu t proba-Illy yie ld just as many extremes in any direction as they doI lilts in the middle. However, this extreme variation is onlyl i t 'use when one bases one's average exclusively on currentI" i . S and the labor time currently necessary for the producti onIII II wor k. But this is already a flawed approach, no t only with

I I Hs, bu t even when considering other types of professionsIII . dentists or engineers. Th e more appropriate track would beIII I lIke the investment in training an d other activities that are1 II 'cssa ry part of becoming an artist into account an d in -

I hid ' them in the calculation of the socially necessary artisticIlhor as well. Then, many more results would collect in th eII tidd Ie, for th e hours of socially necessar y labor would drastiI Illy increase. Th e differences between the prices currentlyII IIlH paid would no longer seem so p reposterous, because th eIIV 'm ll return on the individual hour of artistic labor wouldd l l l i precip itously.

Two quantities are particularly interesting in light of this1111 of reaso ning: first, the amount of time no t spent at ar t

Itool that is a necessary part of becoming an artist, an d seIlIld, the question of how the time that is spent at ar t school is

III II I ed. This is an area in which there are marked differences

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between d ifferent cultures, co u nt r ies, an d regions, bu t also b etween differen t types of artis ts. Th e firs t quantity - time no tspent at ar t school- has fallen substantially compared with theamount spent at ar t school. Fewer an d fewer profes sional artists are "o u tsiders" who acquire their ar t istic education throughromantic involvement in "life" an d then go on to invest thatproductive power. Generally speak ing , the cu rricula vitae ofartists increasingly resemb le those of other highly qualified

specia lized workers. Hence, it is becoming almost impossibleto reinforce the excep tiona l sta tus of the ar t object - which hasoften been transfigured bu t also irrationalized by referenc e tothe exceptional lives of th e artists as bohemians, freaks,and other homines sacri - in this way . Furthe r, in terms of th etime spent in art schoo l, when considering how the value ofartistic products is created, it is normally important to ask whofinanced th e artist's trai n ing. In Europe, th e answer is stillprimarily, in full or in part, the state (or, in a populist abbrevia tion, the taxpayers).

In the United States an d other neol ib eral areas of th e

world, financ ing this general component of labor that issocially necessary for the production of ar t ha s become theresponsib ility of the artists . hemselves, who take ou t loansto pay their way through school and, as it were, invest th e income they will only receive later into their prior education.In this sense, artists are entrepreneurs who pursue their ownma t erial interest and later tha t of others . Th e alterna t e model(tradit ionally followed in Europe) effect ively cas t s artists ascivil servants or government em p loyees and hence, at least indirectly, bound to a concep t ion of the common good . Notonly are they t rained at state-funded universities, the y also

later ta ke on governmen t contracts an d commissions -whether they apply for government programs like Kunst amBau (Ar t in Architecture 3), for municipal ar t projects, or become beneficiaries of a pu b licly financed, postmodern projectculture, or whether they ultimately support themselves by

3 Editor's Note, Kunst am Bau is a fe de ral that a certa in pe rce nt age of the overallprog ra m n Germa ny Iwith counterparts in funding of cer tain ypes of building beother Europea n co untries Iwhich sti pulates d evoted to a visua l a rt compo nen t.

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I II ill one of th e many posts availab le t o artists at state-runII I ' ho Is. In this way, certain artists partic ipate to a much

I ' Il l ' r ex tent in a politically defined project of socialization( Il h bur eaucratic interface of state institutions). ElsewhereII I Y I fine themselves more strongly through their participa-I 1111 in the m arket . Ultimate ly, both approaches undermine the1IlIlIln .tic ex ce ptionalism of art as well as, in a certain sense,I f i l l of the co mmodi t ies they produce .

It is int erest ing to note that a mode l of po litical an dpili II ' invo lvement once exis ted in the United States, name lyIII Ih 193 0s, when visua l artists were widely included inNI w ca l p ro jects. From Ph i lip Guston to Jackson Pollock,"I Illy ar t ists o f the New York school , who would later helpIII ll b lish th e United States' claim to leadership as a cu ltural

I III P we r o f th e "free world" as well as Ne w Yor k's glo b alIt lid rship of the ar t market, spent po r t ions of their educa t io n

\I Id ' uriy ca ree rs wo rking on quasi-socia list projec t s of the~ W 1 ca l administration. And, having once invested their labor

III pi om ting the interests of the sta te, it was on ly na tural thatII I Y i h u ld do so again later on, in a complete ly different se t1. 1 pillilica l circ umstances. Th e interests they helped to ad-

'1111 ' , beca me those of th e anticommunist, Cold War United' 1111 N. T h e s tate form remained constant, although its con-

I II I lind in sti tutions underwent a drastic change. These artistsII ,I nO l adv anc e the national interest out of gratitude, bu tI " Iuse th ey were already used to working within a framework11 1111 wa s n ot p rimarily market-oriented . In a dialec t ical twist,II W IIH precis ely when they became more indivi d ualistic thatIII -/t ' w r k be came espec ially useful to the state (wi th the Cold

III ' under way an d th e Republicans in power, t h e state an d

til marke t no longer stood in each other's way) .Now, if we view artists as entreprene u rs who are acting

III I " ' ir w n ma terial interest, then the knowle d ge they haveI II ' I in bars and at ar t schoo l wou ld be their constant capital

"It! Ih 'ir se aso na l production in any given year would belit II' Vl.lria ble ca pital. They create Mehrwert to the extent that,

' II' em p loyed cultural workers, they are able to take unpaid11 '11 I ime an d often informal extra know ledge away from other

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daily activities - some of which are economic and essentialfor survival - an d invest them in the conception, development,and production of artworks. Th e more of this extra time is invested the better, following the rule that living labor as variablecapital generates the surplus value, no t th e constant capital.Th e more they develop a type of artwork that calls for them tobe present as continuously as possible, often in a performativecapacity, the larger the amount of Mehrwert they create - even

if that Mehrwert cannot always be automatically realized inthe form of a corresponding price .

A model like this ma y elicit th e objection that the twokinds of capital involved are merely components of a singleperson, so that exploiter an d exploited are one and the same.In fact this situation defines the limit for the transfer of th eMarxist terminology to the production of art, especially in termsof the parallel between the employer's purchase of laborpower and the artist's commitment of his own labor time an dextra labor time. Bu t whether a season's production comesacross as promising or idiotic often depends on the newly ac

quired, additional intelligence of th e project and its producer,an d its Mehrwert depends on how large a proportion of livinglabor was involved

No w it goes without saying that the artist who has distanced his activity from practical studio work as well as fromextra work in nightlife and seminars, an d who, as a purelyconceptual entrepreneur, has a large number of assistants whoperform these activities for him, creates an entirely differentM ehrwert, on e that is not produced through self-exploitation.

Le t us imagine, then, that I decide to take my ow nvariable capital, th e commodity of artistic labor power that

I have acquired from myself an d my assistants, an d - on thebasis of the constant capital of my artistic competence, the "technology" of my artistic command of the material - I invest thisin a particular manner . Like any other businessperson, I will tryto do so in such a way that the proportion of additional laborpower invested by me or by my assistants is as valuable as possible. My goal is to produce a value that no t only can be realizedin the form of the highest possible price in the everyday world

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II I I In i ns o f exchange with gallery owners, collectors, an d11 111 ' urns, b ut one which also maximizes its rate of new labor11 111 va riab le capital involved, an d above all of additional un -

1'1 I M ehrar bei t (or surplus labor) in the Marxist sense.II I 1h is res pe c t , th e specific expectations that contemporary11 1 18 mu s t fulfill if they wish to be successful coincide

IIII M arx's fo rmula for Mehrwert: they are to produce works111 111 \I ' as fres h an d ne w as possible (variable capital inc1udIII M ahrar beit [or surplus labor]), bu t they are to do so on theI I I f an alr eady existing reputation an d knowledge (con-I l i l t Dpita l) .When the proportion of constant capital becomes

1IIII Iur e, my r ate of Mehrw ert formation begins to fall. ThisI 1 I n e, fo r example , when too much training time must beII I Illl1u late d in order to then produce something through

11 ' 11 labo r (my own or that of my employees). This is the eco-11 111111 ' di sadv antage of the intellectual artist (who labors ex-

Iv ' Iy at sc hool), or the artist who acts from an especiallyIi I Iy felt sens e of his or he r ow n biographical imperatives( 110 labors ex cessively at the bar) . Indeed, the same model of

" I Y ay va lu e formation ca n easily be applied to the presenttill Y' ' If-emp loyed cultural freelancer who works outside the ar tIi II hi Iry. Howe ver , the rate of Mehrwert formation also falls

II ' 1\ th e artis t in question is dead or when only old works1III II inu e to be traded. In that case (but no t only in that case, II " thi s is n ow happening with young living artists as well) ,III Inws of spe culation take over .

t ) I lor Lhi s o th er kind of value - speculative value - comes aboutI II II I II /-(h prope rti es of the work that are distinct from the valueIlIl uho r time a nd its . use. Nonetheless, th e prerequisite ofspe-

IdU iv valu a tion is a first or primary value of the artwork,II I v' d from it s average socially necessary labor . In other words,I II I ' mu t b e a n everyday ar t market wherein such an aver-I I ll ti o na ll y determines the prices that are paid for a work-

1111 1 I . b y an ar ti st who has reached a certain age an d has spentI I Ii . amo un t s of time at ar t school, involved in nightlife

111 I liv in g ou t a creative, experimental existence . A work by atid il y fi vc -year-o ld artist that costs, say, twenty thousand euros,

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certainly isn't cheap, bu t it corresponds to the average amountof labor invested in it, also if you compare it with labor by similarly specialize d an d educated workers in other fields. Thatmay still be the case, albeit just barely, if the price is five thousand euros pe r work, an d it remains the case up into the highfive figures - naturally, factors such as size an d th e number ofworks that can be produced with comparable effort an d expense ar e important variables that figure into the price .

Price fluctuations within this range are certainly alsodue to impact an d reception outside the market narrowlydefined - as recognition on th e part of curator s an d critics, etc.bu t are no t ye t du e to speculation. Also, the commoditiesproduced by artists at thi s level ar e no t absolute exceptionsvis-a-vis other commodities an d practices. While it is truethat artworks are absolute singularities - an d this is the case,as we will see lat er on, even when they are reproduced andreproducible - they have this status as instances of a certaincategory of commodities. Artists satisfy the general desireand demand for visual artworks - understood as a demand for

singular objects - by producing concrete singularities . Ratherthan an exception to the commodity market , this singularity isprecisely the desired quality of a specific commodity type, itsuniversal attribute .

I t is worth noting that price differences b etween five thousand an d on e hundred thousand euros do no t represent anespecially broad range of variation. Such price variations aresimilar to thos e ' among mass-produced motor vehicles at different levels of quality an d luxury. Th e fact that the labor ofdesigners and of PR professionals who have helped to establish th e symbolic value of a label (and thus added to its con

stant capital) plays an increasingly important role in creatingthe value of luxury consumer goods, an d of the ubiquitousbrand-name- and label-oriented products, does not mean thatthese values are suddenly being created by pure spirit as opposed to living labor. Activities , such as those involved inname or brand building, also constitute highly qualified typesof labor (and should therefore be likened to the labor of acquiring an education) . When we regard th e various symbolic

38

d I 'M of these labors as th e substrates of social distinctions-hO H pro du c tion is learned an d practiced inside an d outside

I 1111 \lro l educa tional institutions an d which are refined in theII'IHOI ria te m ilieus), we ca n see that in these individual acts an d

III ions, va lu e-defining and not only price-defining labor has1111 into pro ducing art and design commodities .

A c harac teristic feature of the normality of the exceptionII III that de ter mines th e everyday life of ar t is that it consists

l l t i l ' Iy of ob jects that seem to have no everyday use value an dIII I Core co ns ist of nothing bu t inflated exchange values an d

I II Inge va lue f etishes. Bu t this is not the case, precisely in a rt'sI y lay life. In this arena, fetishistically inflated ex change

1111 has b een domesticated as what we might call a "secondII I tI I' of use va lue". It goes without saying that there is a, I I I Iin use v alue realized in the various ways of relating to ar t," ) ' lH as with all commodities, that use value is dominatedII ' ha nge va lu e. Thus, use value is every bi t as present in ar tlilt ' IS as it is in all other commodities . It cannot be reducedIII I "di s t in ctive value", "status symbol", or "symbolic value", as

1 III r ' were completely unsymbolic commodities, an d aboveIII , if those d es ignations themselves did no t refer to an emi-

III 1111 nc re te us e within th e sphere of social action, one thatI IIpl 0 ofte n ma ke no effort to disguise . On e might say that,II II 0 va l u e of a certain kind of commodity - which includesIII ob;' ts - lies in its promise to appear as a pure exchangelill " its ability to turn into money. It is just as important, how-

I , lhat this promise goes unrealized for the time being .I,. I ' r ' rra l cor responds to the ar t object 's beauty. Th e beautyII I t l l t l l objec t lie s in the dead labor that it will be capable ofI' 1IIIrming as an e ~ i b i t i o npiece or archival object. It holds ou t

lit pro spec t o f an eventual transformation, which - if oneIII I nrds the " prosaic" nature of that transformation - ma y

' II 0 om to be an experience of the sublime.Now f or speculation to be possible, it must be able to go

I II II 'yond th e e veryday value of th e object while continuing'II I II l Igc - an d invest - in a discourse on reasonableness simi -1111 10 lhnt whi ch surrounds the primary - an d at least appar-

lill y l1orma l - relationship of price an d value (and the relation- .

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ship oflabor an d value embedded within these). I t is necessarythat, beyond this normal relationship, the distance betweenlabor an d value is enhanced by the element of a wager - an dhence of another temporal dimension beyond that of labortime. All speculation, whether in ar t or anything else, refers tothe expected realization of value at some future time - to therealization of living labor that will have "hardened" in the formof value, without the need for any additional living labor . Atthe same time, this wager no t only attempts to call upon expertknowledge concerning a particular future expectation; it alsoattempts to use that knowledge to influence the future directly .However, it is completely indifferent to how value is actuallycreated. As is well known, on e can be t on the realization of valuecompletely independently of whether the products in questionare agrarian (pork sides, frozen orange juice) or the weatherbeaten products of some outdated form that mixes craftsan d industrial production an d is itself based on a highly developed division of labor (old apartment buildings in big cities) .

In the visual arts, the rationalizing of specu lation is basedon the notion that this is in some sense a component of thedetermination of price, either as a truth (that was previouslysubmerged an d is now e ~ e r g i n g )or simp ly as a perpetuationof the mixture of value creation, price formation, an d reception(that was supposedly contained in th e original determinationof the object's price). Th e price of an ordinary commodity onlyappears as th e false semblance of its value (and hence of theway in which living labor is transformed into value) becauseprices always appear as the prices of things an d bring intothe world a notion of reasonableness an d unreasonableness thatca n only apply to things. In art, by contrast, the discourse ofreasonableness is constantly searching for arguments that gobeyond the objective aspects of price formation (rarity, demand, etc.) an d include the artistic quality and the time andmoney required to accrue these - of the individual work -in the justification.

In the process of speculation, this rationalizing discoursebecomes doubly false. No t only is it still based on the notionthat prices can adequately express value, it now insists that the

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I' ulntive pr ice - fa r from having even less to do with livingIllull i s a pa rticularly intimate an d faithful expression of the" u tu lUs a nd metaphysical value of living artistic labor . Th eI"" I"lc h ed a t auction is meant to be the voice of history,III \ Il lll rost to th e price paid on th e everyday ar t market, whichI III " ' iy th e vo ice offashion. " From the notion of ars Zonga,

" I h i 'g itima te s ar t by pointing to its longevity an d outlastsrill ,lil(1 brev is, t o th e notion of the never-ending character of 11,ti expe rience that is posited by modern reception theory,

ri ll I 1Ma long line of philosophical theories of belated truth,..lilt grad ua l re velation of reality, of the slow accomplishment"I JII Ii e, a ll th ree of which are purposely conflated with spec.rlill 11/1 in the s pe cific mode of false conscio usness that charac

the a rt market . It is also telling that, in recent decades, Ivl/II ' 'd art h as no t only taken duration as the subject of1"1 II I ge nr es ( duration pieces); it has also made it the subjectI"111 po rtio n s o f fine ar t genres that were originally con- v I 'xcl usive ly in spatial an d object-like terms (time-based

II I NI dlutio n s, eve n time-based paintings).But th is d oubly false semblance based on the rationaliz

" 11 11 01 ' spe cu la tion , is no t to be confused with the ac t of1111/111 nega tion . I t merely completes th e illusory character ofIII I l l ' l l ! or pr i mary kind of price, making it "airtight " an d

11111 n ' Wib le . This illusion is also causally connected with thatI I N \ I' pr im ar y price : Every normal, everyday ac t of purchaseI l l d 'X 'h ang e in the world of primary prices an d their associIII II vu lues ca n also be read as an ac t that ha s a bearing onI" 'l iI (ui n , e ven where the prices involved are list prices that

II IIppu rent ly the same for all.

) I 'll ' re is a w idespread assumption that the commodity, I, 1111 ' I 'r o f a rtworks is associated with their reproducibility .1'111 vi 'w t ha t re produced or reproducible artworks are no tI Ill y IInwo rks a t all bu t merely commodities is a misunder-1IIIItiing th a t it is probab ly no longer necessary to correct. Of

~ Atleast this constiutes the e leme nts of the e lemen ts o do some thing e lse - stag ing ga l-bas ic ma rket sys tem for a rt, even whe n o- lery s hows as a uctions; biennia ls as galleryday people somet imes use these c lass ical shows; co ming soon, the auct ion as debu t.

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course, it was only natural that th e first post-ritual artworks -that is, secular artworks that were no longer made on commission and were often produc ed in factory-like studios by teamsof workers who divided the labor among them, supervised bythe master - could only become commodities by presentingthemselves as originals. Th e aura of the original, which is th eprerequisite for the artwork's commodity charact er, is a mystification in its ow n right. It functions like the mystification

already embodied in the work's commodity character, bu t itmystifies s ometh ing else .Th e commodity form lends to the transformation of living labor into abstract labor, use value intoexchange value, an object-quality that causes the social character of the labor an d its distinctive features to appear natural.Via the concept ual fetish of th e "unique genius of th e artist," theaura of the original causes the living artistic labor to appearas a patina, a physical index, an aspect of a work's chemical an dmaterial composition, hence as a quality connected withnatural material decay, that is, as all of those things that canbe fetishized under the headings of personal signature, unique

ness, originality, an d artwork. Not all of these concepts,however, refer exclusively to th e material quality that causesthe living artistic labor to appear as an auratic object . To a certain extent, the authentic material o.f the original has alreadyevaporated an d the ar t object has turned into something like ametaphysical index .

Since th e twentieth century, the artistic commodity is nolonger required to be an original in the strict sense. It ca ntake the form of a multiple, a printed work, a rare periodical, ora readymade. Th e artist's singularity is no longer transferredto the object via physical contact with them, bu t via a spiritual

one. Th e artist conceives the readymade, plans th e project.Nevertheless, th e process must ultimately result in rare, singular objects: traces of production, out of print periodicals an dprinted works, gallery po sters, invitations, certificates, or objectsauraticized by other kinds of visible or less tang ible efforts.What these objects display is no longer a physical index bu t ametaphysical one .Their reference, however, is neither iconic,no r is it symbolic. Th e artwork is no t an image of th e artist's

III IIllIrily, no r is it an arbitrary sign . Rather, it continues toI" I Ill'de d as an index of his or her uniqueness, his or he r

II "luI' ind ividuality. Th e artwork is an image with respectI" II I w rid it represents; that world, however, is secondary tolilt " I xed uniqueness of its deliverer or deliverers (since

. II I I imes the focus is on unique constellations or collectivesI 111111.lhon sin gular artists). It is a symbol within the socialI hll 1111 : in the differential production of its meaning and status

"I I[llion to o ther works. Its value, however, is determined" 1111111' tio n with its aura, an d therefore indexically.

In the cas e of this second, more widespread "metaphyI III II I x", the artistic commodity no t only contains the

110 1111 ' I ion of the artist's living labor, together with all of the1111111 pr 'vious ly invested in ar t school, nightlife, an d Bohemian

II n . '. It also contains the additional, non-artistic living1111111 of the a rti st's employees an d assistants as well as that ofIlIi Idillryfi rm s such as printers, foundries, etc. In addition,

1111 v I', it fu rther - an d above a l l - contains th e spiritual111111111 'me n t of all of these subordinate types oflabor by a direc

I'" , I I 'rso n in charge. This director, then, performs intellecII I tf luhm, an d a s teadily growing amount of such labor, which

11111111 h ' des cr ibed in detail bu t which acquires a metaphy-II ,II Ind 'x in th e mediated presence [vhmittelheit] of th eI IIN ' 1ruces, in the mediated presence of the aura an d its conI I " t i l l into an "as-if aura". This is the case even when the,"I il ' If ta kes a critical view of , or attempts to exclude, quesIII1 N of lIrtis tic subjectivity. In the ar t context, projects, perform

ti l I or ot her works that do no t yield objects are alsoIII til " prov id ed they result in some trace that is capable of,

1\ 11111 n ' point, ending up in a private collection an d acqui-I II II vll lue.

This ne w aur a is thus a special kind of value that realizesn l l l l l l ~'ria l and intellectual labor as well as the many kinds" 1111 I l l ' tha t go to make up the artist's life. Objec ts are betterllil! 10 10 th is the less they continue to thematize th e classical

II lit , wilh its material traces of the physicality of the artist.I l lh -less, in the end, artworks must be capable of absorbIII . I rnce and the quasi-indexical mechanism of this ne w

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I

I II

A Crisis of Value

Thanks to the special object character of visual artworks, th erelationship between their economic price an d the living laborthat has gone into producing them and that was previouslyinvested in the artist's edu cation is fundamentally different fromthat which exists in the other arts: film, music, an d theater.

Nevertheless, in the bourgeois er a a system developed that, inaddition to the exceptional returns sometimes enjoyed byliving visual a rtists, also ensured that other artists would beable to make a living . These artists ha d to sell their labor inth e market place in various ways an d at various levels of thesocial hierarchy, an d dId no t as often have the privilege ofworking as independent artists an d entrepreneurs . In return,however, the system guaranteed them economic security.That system was based in part on the reproduction of theirwork and in part on their physical presence at performances.Because of the high labor costs involved, this live performance

based segment (theater, opera, symphony) is still associatedwith heavier financial losses . It therefore tends to be most robustly funded by the state or --' in the United States, for example -supported by private, no t for profit ~n s t i t u t i o n sthat receive taxbreaks in place of government funding. Th e reproductionbased segment - film and music - does make profits, which inthe classical era of the culture industry were produced by employing industria l means of production and exploiting livingartistic an d other labor . In Western capitalist societies, profitsgenerally tend to be private, while losses are more often thanno t assumed by the state. But the reason why the surplus value

gained from reproduced cultural commodities was so highis that the latter contained a large amount of cheap living laborperformed outside the artistic sector . That labor extendedfrom literal reproduction - in record pressing plants an d filmduplication facilities - to packaging an d printing, from shipping an d freight to advertising an d promotion. Digital reproduction ha s pu t an end to th e possibility of creating Mehr-wert by exploiting large quantities of poorly paid, untrained

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I l h l l l d irec tly involved in the physical production an d distri-11111111 11 n fthe reproduced cultural commodities.

N w, h owever, th e culture industry has entered a crisis. I p roduc tio n continues to become massively cheaper

11101 I I i ' r (affe cting th e film an d music industries to differingH), M eh rwe rt formation has been forced to shift to the, 'c tors o f production . In this reproduction-based sector,

'1\ 1I0 l eno ugh to drive wages-or the prices paid for livingII I I ' labo r - into free fall to keep the rate of profit high (the

I II I I,f'),) r fit d epends on having the largest possible prop or -I II I 1'1' living labor). Only a tiny handful of superstars, or clas

I II IIILls icians directly employed or subsidized by th e gov-11 1111 nL , are s till able to make a living from their music alone .

II I II , r 'a im of cinema, experimental an d artistic films haveII I IIII to a ha ndful of government-subsidized works on th e

' . l t l l of te lev ision . Thus, in the music - an d film-basedli lt Il l S of the culture industry, the emphasis has shifted from

II I nil) t-base d economic form to a performance-based one,III 111'11 liv in g actors are regarded less as a long-term invest. 1111 1 whose sta tu s is comparable to that of the self-employed

il l Ii i 'Ns),)eop le in the world of the v isual arts; instead, they tendI I IIIV ' t he sta tus of da y laborers. Th e only route out of thisIV II flif e is toward th e government-subsidized high ar t seg

II I II I ( th eate r, ballet) or th e visual arts.M ea nw h ile , the exodus to the auratic-object- and per

l 111 111111 'c- base d rea lms is continuing. Musicians can only111' 11111" th em selves by touring and taking advertising contracts,

, 1111 '. 11111the sa le of reproduced sound storage media, whose 1'111 luc tion has become obsolete in the digital age because

II , I lind or iginals have now become technically indistinguish

II I II ' nee , ex perimental filmmakers an d musicians are1111 I II ingly at t empting to define their works as originals or as' ~ I J I t hut are no longer originals in a technical sense, bu t111'1 t 'lIrriers o f a secondary aura or metaphysical index .

111 IIV ' r , tl1e culture industry is experiencing the proliferation" I \l Id ' variety of ne w "discount sectors" (in television, the

11111 11 1 " , lind the CD and DVD markets). Here, perfo rmanceI I II I(lrll1ats ha ve emerged that involve a deprofessionalized

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and deregulated culture-industriai proletariat - one that helpsto produce liveliness, animation, masturbation material,emotion, energy, an d other varieties of pure life an d sells itsown self-representing labor power very cheaply, no longeras labor power bu t as less an d less professional "life force" orvitality. Porn becomes the increasingly ap t economic model.At the same time, clients and producers at the upper en d of

the bygone culture-industrial sector are fleeing to the object-based arts.

Possession of the secondary aura ultimately allows thevisual arts to follow suit via the selling of alien products -products that were no t originally ar t objects bu t were soldthrough reproduction and are no w ennobled by the metaphysical inde x. These include records made of crazy colorfulvinyl an d produced in limited editions, CD boxes with highdesign value, an d multiples of all kinds . However, unlike themultiples that come from sculpture, these tend to functionas artist books used to, as ennobled bu t essentially conventional

data storage media (sound an d image carriers or books).Th e flight towards auratic object production, on th e one

hand, and th e proletarianization of performance, on th e other,effectively usher in a situation that blends th e features of precapitalist an d post-bourgeois conditions . Previously, th ebourgeoisie wa s a stable, cultural class that had its place atthe center of cultural production, which it regulated by meansof a mixture of free-market attitudes an d subsidies, stagingits own expression as both a ruling class and a life force thatstood in need of legitimation. Th e bourgeoisie is no w fragmenting into various anonymous economic profiteers wh o no

longer constitu te a single, cultural entity. For most economicprocesses, state an d national cultural formations are no longeras crucial fo r th e realization of economic interests as theywere previously . As a result, th e bourgeoisie, as a class thatonce fused political, economic, an d cultural power, is becoming less visible. Instead , the most basic economic factorsare becoming autonomous . Once these factors become autonomous, th e obligation towards cultural values that even theworst forms of th e culture industry kept as standards , disap-

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I " II ,' I'hi te ndency contributes to the emergence of two difI I III 'u ltura l worlds. On e rewards purely physical talent,

llillity, ag ili ty, an d other performative, ephemeral, erotic, an d' I I I 1M 'lie attra ctions . In this world, the subjectivity of th e perI,,, 111 ' 1'8 wi ll u ltimately be reduced to an essentially interchangeIhll p ' rforma nce quality- a development that is to some

, 11111 tilready underway with the proliferation of DIs, rockIt old , am a teur actors, an d reality show casts and extras. Th e1'11111 ' Iy avai lab le work - a s table object that could be foundII III 'hives and on backlists an d that once made it possible to

1111 lish pu b lic personalities throughout entertainment culI I I I I is disap pearing, while th e number of stars is decreasing,

I lil ' 'd by an ephemeral an d shifting population of semi-I I Iwit ies. Thu s , th e whole thing is gradually coming to reI II II I a wo rld of traveling minstrels an d itinerant theater

III It III 'S [rom pre-bourgeois, pre-capitalist culture, albeit no w1111 lilt ing un der the conditions of the digital age .

In the o ther cultural world, auratic objects will continue'" h introduce d into circulation. In part, they will functionI n of the metaphysical index - a trace of th e ar t ist's indivi-"I l l i ly, of an attractive social sphere, or of technological ad-

il l ' ment and th e ontology of th e fashionable - an d in partII I V h 'ms elves will have become a kind of common coin orII 1111 nder . They will be associated even more forcibly with1111 I 'lIs ing ly mythified artist subjects an d their world . SinceIi i I " ntra l fu nction is to bring primary and secondary value,ti l I ' Iutcd va lue creation environments, discursive an d silent0111 01 her de a d labor together with living labor, new formats

III II ri se that will have to reflect an d ideologically confirm thisIlIlIdnnce of meaning an d to some extent also power .

Th e internally heterogeneous post-bourgeoisie, which1111 i ts of p rofiteers of the current world order who come

11 11111 II trcme ndous variety of cultural backgrounds, seems toII I ' h 'c n ab le to agree on the visual arts as a common ground .

1111111 this co nsensus, the p ost-bourgeoisie will create a myth,I III' Ilrtist th at is different from the myth created an d believedII !IV Ihc o ld bo urgeoisie. Like the old myth, this ne w on e

II II , based o n an ideal self-image: an excessive, hedonistic ,

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an d powerful monster who shares the old artist's enthusiasmfor acts of liberation bu t is far removed from all political orcritica l commitments. Like the new performance proletarians,it will embrace restlessness an d instability as a cultural valuean d idealize precariousness. The boundary between perfor-mance proletarians an d neocharismatic artist monsters will beregarded as fl u id, and now an d again someone will write a heartbreaking musica l about the supposed permeabi lity of that

boundary .As a last remaining consolation, let us be glad that, here -

in Chapter III, I am writing in a literary tradition . Talkingabout a crisis is after all a classic literary genre. I t usually leadsto a transformation of tendencies into totalities . Bu t tendencyan d totalization obey different developmental laws .

Translated from the German by James Gussen

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diedrichsen-on surplus value in art

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