Powerpoint Petra Van Brabandt

Op zoek naar luiheid

dr. Petra Van BrabandtSint-Lucas Antwerpen

Studium Generale HoGent 02.04.14

Duchamp, de luie kunstenaar

“Deep down I'm enormously lazy. I like living, breathing better than working.”

Inleiding

• Het verwijt van luiheid• Luiheid: niet werken• Werken? (I)• Het goede leven voor iedereen?• Positieve recuperatie van luiheid (II)

I. Werken

(a) de slaaf maakt ons vrij(b) de teleurstelling van de vooruitgang(c) het actieve leven: gekoloniseerd door de

animal laborans(d) postfordisme

II. Luiheid

(a) Relatie tot jezelf(b) Relatie tot wereld(c) Relatie tot ander

I. Werken

(a) de slaaf maakt ons vrij

• Ideaal: scholè• Vrije tijd• Nadenken en aan politiek doen• Vrije burgers• Slavenstaat

(a) de slaaf maakt ons vrij

• Christendom: leven is lijden• Belofte van hiernamaals

“ (T)he necessity of keeping the poor contented (…) has led the rich, for thousands of years, to preach the dignity of labor, while taking care themselves to remain undignified in this respect.” (B. Russell, In Praise of Idleness, 1932)

(b) de teleurstelling

• Hoop:Technologische vooruitgang& Productiviteitsstijging

Behoeftebevrediging en vrije tijd voor iedereen

“Modern technique has made it possible for leisure (…) to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.” (B. Russell)


• Immer uitgestelde droom• Slaven van de loonarbeid• Geen collectieve zoektocht

“Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, (…).” (B. Russell)


“There has never been a labor system that announces the solution to mankind's problem thusly: the truth of your striving is the way to laziness. Instead, we find everywhere those dreary reminders of the virtue of labor, and the implication that labor is unavoidable, and it is impossible to lay it aside (…).” (K. Malevich, Laziness – The Real Truth of Mankind, 1921)

“Suppose that, at a given moment, a certain number of people are engaged in the manufacture of pins. They make as many pins as the world needs, working eight hours a day. Someone makes an invention by which the same number of men can make twice as many pins as before. But the world does not need twice as many pins (…) In a sensible world, everybody concerned in the manufacture of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, (…). But in the actual world (…) men still work eight hours, there are too many pins (…). Can anything more insane be imagined?” (B.Russell)


• Werkloosheid• Consumptie opdrijven• Duurzaamheid afbouwen

“All our products are adulterated to aid in their sale and shorten their life. Our epoch will be called the “Age of adulteration” just as the first epochs of humanity received the names of “The Age of Stone”, “The Age of Bronze”, from the character of their production.” (P. Lafargue, The Right to Be Lazy, 1883 )

“A good working woman makes with her needles only five meshes a minute, while certain circular knitting machines make 30,000 in the same time. Every minute of the machine is thus equivalent to a hundred hours of the workingwomen’s labor, or again, every minute of the machine’s labor, gives the working women ten days of rest. (…) But what do we see? In proportion as the machine is improved and performs man’s work with an ever increasing rapidity and exactness, the laborer, instead of prolonging his former rest times, redoubles his ardor, as if he wished to rival the machine. O, absurd and murderous competition!” (Lafargue)

(c) vita activa: gekoloniseerd door animal laborans

• Niet gerealiseerd: The Truth of Humanity

behoeftebevrediging vrije

tijd


Vrije tijd?

Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, 1958Animal laborans: arbeidHomo faber: werkenZoon politikon: handelen


Animal laborans: arbeidLevensonderhoudGeketend door noodzaak (onvrij)Altijd herhalen, nooit permanent, cyclischDichtst bij dierenNooit te eliminerenPost IR: met weinig inspanning te realiseren


Homo faber: werkenWerken aan wereld, Permanent, stabiliteitZelfoverstijgend in tijd en plaats (vrijer dan

arbeid)TraagDingen, instituties, relatiesvb. Kunst: Duchamp (vs Warhol)


Zoon politikon: handelenSamenkomen, uitwisselen, sprekenNiets onbesproken latenVrijheid om samen opnieuw te beginnenIdeaal Griekse Polis

(d) postfordisme

• Vandaag: animal laborans of “vrij en creatief”?• Jaren ‘60: 2 soorten kritiek sociale kritiek artistieke kritiek

• Fordisme Postfordisme• Postfordisme: kenniseconomie, diensten… Creativiteit, autonomie, flexibiliteit

(d) postfordisme

• Antwoord op artistieke kritiek• Creativiteit en flexibiliteit• Flexibiliteit = vrijheid?• Minder jobs nodigEindeloos creatief en flexibel zijnzelfdiscipline en zelfcontrole geatomiseerd

(d) postfordisme

Relatie tot zelf• Elke dag opnieuw bewijzen• Precariteit • De-employment politiek (jobloze groei)

Mythe van werk-zoekende Responsabilisering

• Animal laborans: racen aan de sociale kritiek voorbij

(d) postfordisme

Relatie tot ander• Verwijt• Ressentiment• Sociale kritiek verstomt

(d) postfordisme

Bullshit jobs:

“In the year 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century’s end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries (…) would have achieved a 15-hour work week. There’s every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this. And yet it didn’t happen. Instead, technology has been marshaled, if anything, to figure out ways to make us all work more. In order to achieve this, jobs have had to be created that are, effectively, pointless.” (D. Graeber, On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs, 2013)

(d) postfordisme

Gevolgen van jobs:

“The harder you work the more work you’re making for somebody else, or the more harm you’re doing to the environment. There’s nothing virtuous about that, is there?” (Ivor Southwood, Non-Stop Inertia, 2011)

II. Luiheid

II. Luiheid

“If we were to stop in some way, we could see the scenery clearly and see each other clearly, and that the scenery wouldn’t be blurred. We might be able to see an exit, or a way of improving things.” (I. Southwood)

animal laborans terugdringenplaats voor homo faber/zoon politikonLin Yutang, The Importance of Living, 19337

II. Luiheid

ont-moeting met jezelf

II. Luiheid

• ont-moeting met wereld

II. Luiheid

ont-moeting met ander sociale kritiek:

“Le vrai travail, on ne l’a pas encore trouvé” (E. Bloch, Traces)

Mladen Stilinovic, Artist at Work, 1977

Powerpoint Petra Van Brabandt

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