the end of the economy and the realization of art

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http://scansitu.antipool.org/6002.html

Originally appeared inInternationale

Situationniste No.4 (June1960). Extracts from

'Critique of the EconomicPolicy' published as a SI

Special Report same year(see elsewhere on this

website). Translated byReuben Keehan and

taken from Situationist

International Online

The End of the Economy and the Realization of Art

Asger Jorn

FOR HUMANITY, time is nothing but a succession of phenomena from apoint of observation in space, while space is the order of the co-existenceof phenomena in time or process.

Time is the change that is only conceivable in the form of a progressivemovement in space, while space is the solid that is only conceivable in itsparticipation in a movement. Neither space nor time possesses a reality orvalue outside of change or process, that is to say outside of the activecombination of space-time. The action of space-time is the process, andthis process is itself the change of time in space and the change of spacein time.

We see, then, that the augmentation of quality, or resistance to change, isdue to quantitative augmentation. They march in step. This development isthe goal of socialist progress: the augmentation of quality by theaugmentation of quantity. And it allows this double augmentation to be

strikingly identical to the diminution of value, of space-time: reification.

The greatness that determines value is space-time, the instant or theevent. The space-time reserved for the existence of human space on theEarth demonstrates its value in events. No events, no history. The spacetime of a human life is its private property. This was Marx's great discoveryin the perspective of human liberation, but at the same time it is the point ofdeparture for the errors of the Marxists, because property only gains valuein its realization, in its liberation, in its use, and what makes the space-timeof a human life a reality is its variability. What gives the individual a socialvalue is the variability of their behavior in relation to others. If this variabilitybecomes private, excluded from social valorization - as is the case underauthoritarian socialism - human space-time becomes unrealizable.Therefore, the private character of human qualities ("hobbies") has becomean even greater valorization of human life than the private property of themeans of production because uselessness, in socialist determinism, isnonexistent. Instead of abolishing the private character of property,socialism does nothing but augment them as much as possible, rendinghumans themselves useless and socially non-existent.

The goal of the development of artistic liberation is the liberation of humanvalues by the transformation of human qualities into real values. Herebegins the artistic revolution against socialist development, the artisticrevolution that is tied to the communist project . . .

The value of art is therefore a counter-value in relation to practical values,and its measure in a sense inverse to the them. Art is the invitation toexpend energy, with no precise goal other than what spectatorsthemselves can bring to it. This is prodigality . . . Some still imagine that thevalue of art is in its duration, its quality. And they think that gold andprecious stones are of artistic value, that artistic value is an inherent qualityof the object in itself. By this logic, the work of art is nothing but theconfirmation of humanity as the essential source of value . . .

The capitalist revolution was essentially a socialization of consumption.Capitalist industrialization brought humanity a socialization as profound asthe socialization proposed by the socialists - that of the means ofproduction. The socialist revolution is the fulfillment of the capitalist


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revolution. The one element removed from the capitalist system is saving,because consumption's richness has already been eliminated by thecapitalists themselves. It is so rare to find a capitalist these days whoseconsumption exceeds the meanest demands. The difference between thelifestyle a great lord of the 17th century and that of a great capitalist of theRockefeller era is ridiculous, and the gap is always widening.

The richness of consumption's variability was economized by capitalism,because the commodity is nothing but an object of socialized use. It is forthis reason that sociologists avoid occupying themselves with the object of

use.

The socialization of the object of use, which can be considered as acommodity, has three principle aspects:

a) On its own, the object of use of a common interest, desired by a greatenough quantity of people, can serve as a commodity. The idealcommodity is the object desired by all. In order to open the way towardsuch a socialization of industrial production, capitalism must destroy theidea of individual and artisanal production, under the guise of "formalism"

b) In order to discuss the commodity, it is necessary to have a quantity of

exactly the same object. Industry is only concerned with objects in series,manufactured in larger and larger numbers

c) Capitalist production is characterized by a propaganda of popularconsumption that reaches incredible power and volume. The demand for asocialist production is only the logical consequence of the demand for asocialized consumption.

Currency is the completely socialized commodity, showing everyone themeasure of common value. . .

Socialization really constitutes a system built on absolute saving. Indeed,let us consider the object of use. We have indicated that the object of use

becomes a commodity the moment as soon as it becomes useless, whenthe causal link between consumption and production is exhausted. On itsown, an object of use is transformed in saving, stockpiling, becoming acommodity, but only in the case where a quantity of objects is stockpiled.This system of storage, which is the root of the commodity, is noteliminated by socialism. In fact, the opposite is true: the socialist system isfounded on the stockpiling without exception of all production before itsdistribution, with the goal of perfect control of this distribution.

To date, no analysis has been made of accumulation - of stockpiling orsaving - in its own form, that is that of the container. Stockpiling occursaccording to the relationship between container and its contents. Weremarked initially that the substance, known as the contents, is none otherthan process and in the form of content, it signifies a material in storage, alatent force. But we have always considered it from its own stable form.The form of a container is a form contrary to the form of its contents itsfunction is to prevent the contents from entering into process, except incontrolled and limited conditions. The container-form is therefore asomewhat different thing to the form of the material itself, where there isnever anything but the form of the contents here one of term is found to bein absolute contradiction with the other. It is only in the domain of biologythat the container becomes a basic function. All biological life has evolved,so to speak, by opposing the container-forms with the forms of the material.Technological development continues on the same path all systems ofmeasurement, of scientific control, are placed in the relationship of


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objective forms to container-forms.

Container-forms are established contradicting measured forms. Thecontainer-form normally conceals the form of its contents, and thuspossesses a third form: that of appearance. These three forms are neverclearly distinguished in discussions on form . . .

Money is the measure of time in social space . . . In a given space, that ofsociety, money is the means of imposing speed itself. The invention ofcurrency is the basis of 'scientific' socialism, and the destruction of

currency will be the basis of the supersession of this mechanical socialism.Currency is the work of art transformed into numbers. The realization ofcommunism will be the transformation of the work of art in the totality ofeveryday life . . .

Wherever it is manifest (in capitalism, in reformism, in so-called'communist' power) bureaucracy appears as the realization of commoncounter-revolutionary socialization, in a certain manner, in the various rivalsectors of the modern world. Bureaucracy is the container-form of society:blocking process - blocking revolution. In the name of the control of theeconomy, bureaucracy economizes without control (for its own ends, forthe preservation of what exists). It has every power but the power to

change things. And all change will always be made against it . . .

Real communism will be the leap into the domain of freedom and of value,of communication. Contrary to utilitarian value (normally known as materialvalue), artistic value is the progressive value because, by a process ofprovocation, it is the valorization of humanity itself.

Since Marx, economic politics has shown its impotence and its cowardice.A hyperpolitics will need to strive for the direct realization of humanity.

This text is taken from a brochure by Jorn: Critique of Economic Politics,which will be issued in a series of "Reports presented to the SI" (Brussels,May 1960).

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the end of the economy and the realization of art

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