Hi everyone. I was reading parts of this book by Lazzaratto, "Marcel Duchamp and the Refusal of Work" (Semiotext(e), 2014). It makes me wonder about the useless sense at the non-sense that is present on the Infrathin operations. Lazzaratto describes the duchampian category of laziness and from that I was thinking about the creation aspects that are involved on Infrathin operations, its paradox, its power of inaprehension leading to new forms of subjectivity.
Lazzaratto says that:
Lazzaratto says that:
"Duchampian laziness lends itself to two readings. It represents a socio-economic critique and at the same time constitutes a "philosophical" category. It discloses new dimensions of existence and new forms of life which compel us to rethink action, time, and subjectivity.
Let us start with the socio-economic critique. Laziness is not simply a"non-action" or a "minimal-action." It involves taking a position with respect to the conditions of existence under capitalism.
First of all, it affirms a subjective refusal of (paid) work and of all the forms of conformist behavior capitalist society demands. It is a rejection of "all those little rules that dictate you won't get food if you don't show signs of activity or production of some kind.
Duchamp very precisely and trenchantly describes the artist's integration into the capitalist economy and the transformation of art into a commodity: "you buy art the way you buy spaghetti."
In 1963 William Seitz asked Duchamp if he thought the artist had compromised himself under capitalism. "It's a capitulation. It seems today that the artist couldn't survive if he didn't swear allegiance to the good old mighty dollar. That shows how far the integration has gone." Integration into capitalism is also and above all subjective. Even if the artist, unlike the factory work, has no direct boss, he is nonetheless subject to apparatuses of power which do more than merely define the space in which he produces; they determine the composition of subjectivity."
It is very interesting this paradox among that laziness category. Duchamp somehow talks about the contradiction that lies on this category, cause even to be lazy some kind of work is necessary, but in a different level of relation and hierarchy that is opposite to capitalist relations.
"The stipulation would be that you cannot work," presupposes a reconversion of subjectivity and work on the self, because laziness represents a different way of inhabiting time and the world."This paradox made me wonder about the relation between cuffs and forms of subjectivity. What a different relation between work, activity and the useless aspect of aesthetics and ethics among cuffs might emerge.
So I reminded a very beautiful,
interesting and paradoxical rite from a traditional community here in
Brazil: "washer women" or Lavadeiras. Many groups of women from Minas
Gerais state, living in agricultural communities, has the duty of
washing clothes by the river. Amongst the duty of washing clothes, they
sing their daylives: female voices, singing themes like conversation
with female friends, mothers, afro-brazilian traditions and daylife
situations they are protagonists.
Between
the rough mechanics of the duty and the aesthetization of life, they sing
different brazilian rhythms and become a vocal group. Anthropologists and sociologist keep wondering two poles for that becoming: social-economic inclusion or/and another form of capture, or, aesthetization as another way of opression. Between these poles, different lines intertwined: opression, minorities, lack of resources but, within that, affirmative practices, creation and the risk of cooptation of disruptive forces of creation amongst the washers tradition.
So I am attaching here a video. Lavadeiras de Almenara, from a place called Vale do Jequitinhonha. The ladies talk about their practice of washing clothes on the river due to water absence, the difficulties and the becoming of the washers as a vocal female group. Hope you enjoy it.
So I am attaching here a video. Lavadeiras de Almenara, from a place called Vale do Jequitinhonha. The ladies talk about their practice of washing clothes on the river due to water absence, the difficulties and the becoming of the washers as a vocal female group. Hope you enjoy it.
Cadu - this is wonderful. It's strange - when I was thinking about what I would teach next year (course proposals are due a year in advance, and I never repeat a course) I came up with a course on theories of subjectivity. Not sure what to think except that perhaps a careful thinking about what marks a presence/absence, such as a cuff, also composes with the question of subjectivity. As for Maurizio Lazzarato's reading of Duchamp, I asked him about the infrathin (noting the absence of the concept) and he hadn't come across it (it's not very widely known). I wonder how Maurizio's reading above would be different if the laziness were infrathin, cuff-like in relation to other forms of worlding (other ways of acting, of participating. I think your foregrounding of the women's rhythms is perfect in this regard...
ReplyDeleteIt is strange in fact, cause it is very "thin" when we come across subjectivity. It is thin because the infrathin doesn't have to do with voluntarism, isn't it? I think, in a certain way, some aspects of this involuntarism, or this always escaping of the infrathin there's something to do with resistence and creation. But, since it is not a voluntarism, the care is fundamental.
DeleteIt's delicate, very delicate. I feel the infrathin has much to do with laziness as Duchamp describes it. But it is quite paradoxical (this is also thin). I like the way Jose Gil brings the Infrathin with the concept of petit perceptions.. cause he brings a vitalism (that for me is soften then a radical laziness, even with both being forces).... how to fold.. with prudence... cuffs as protection.
I also remembered the clinics. I accompanied two patients that were depressive when started their retirement. The absence of job and the possibility to keep in a different way after retiring was so scaring for them. The necessity of being usefull is something very present within our subjectivity that when we get closer to that useless thing, it's quite difficult. The social prejudice, injuries, it's not that simple an elegy of laziness. How to dismantle the capitalist subjectivity but keeping the shield.. a vitalist one, not to perish. At the same time it is a resistence the laziness, as I wondered at beginning.
I remember when I started do become a liberal professional, after thinking institutions, dealing and being challenged and pushed by them, I could see that institutions were not apart from me even when I was outside the walls, the formal job, they were inside me. Me as an institution. This went so clear for me. And somehow I noticed how carefull I should be, I saw that, even when we feel the hard forms of institutions, we cannot implode them all of a sudden.
The interesting thing about the lavadeiras is how they fold singing within the institutional. As if singing was prudence and resistence. Not mute. "The prudence of an experimentor" :-)...
The thinessness of paradox: infrathin. hehe