K Foundation Burn a Million Quid  

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In ‘The notion of expenditure’ Georges Bataille concentrates on the more destructive expressions of potlatch, specifically ‘non-productive expenditure’- the type of ‘Killing wealth’ only rarely experienced these days. For instance, the KLF’s burning of a million pounds or Ryoei Saito’s cremation of 160 million dollars of fine art. For Bataille, ‘sumptuary moments’ are revolutionary in themselves, purely because they are the antithesis of use. Games, war, spectacle, art, non-reproductive sex, all challenge the tyranny of utility. They ‘represent activities which, at least in primitive circumstances, have no end beyond themselves’ (Bataille, 2004, p118). Later he spins off on a more Nietzschean tact, extending the metaphor to genocide and the destruction of a whole class- the power elite potlatch.[1]

Lest I be accused of too much theory, it is time for some gratuitous nudity, number 8 in our series[2].

This picture, taken from an unknown issue of Paris-Tabou, comes our way via Bxzzines[3], the blog on French obscure magazines.

This particular photo depicts a nude female embraced by a robot. The title is "L'amour en l'an 2000", love in the year 2000. If we consider the robot as dressed, we can categorize this picture as belonging to the nude female/dressed male trope, should this notion to be far-fetched, it can still qualify to shed light on the sex and science fiction trope.

Paris Tabou was a French pin-up magazine published from September 1949 until 1953. Possibly taking its name from the Tabou Club, it published pin-up girls and stories by such authors as Boris Vian, who contributed L'Amour est aveugle, published in its first issue in 1949). Illustrators included the Italian Gino Boccasile.

Do not be surprised if it turns up at the excellent blog PonyXpress[4], the author of which has just favorited it at my Flickr stream[5].

Furthering my research on Georges Bataille's general economy[6], helped by Valter's kind comment[7], it occured to me that the Marxian notion of surplus product is very similar to Bataille's excess. The two notions and can only lead to wasteful spending such as luxury or war.

Thus, we read on page 21 of volume 1 of The Accursed Share:

"The living organism, in a situation determined by the play of energy on the surface of the globe, ordinarily receives more energy than is necessary for maintaining life; the excess energy (wealth) can be used for the growth of a system (e.g., an organism); if the system can no longer grow, or if the excess cannot be completely absorbed in its growth, it must necessarily be lost without profit; it must be spent, willingly or not, gloriously or catastrophically" (v. 1 p. 21).

If the "excess energy" or "surplus product" is spent "gloriously", we call it luxury, if spent "catastrophically", it is war. Notions that connect are pure war by French philosopher Paul Virilio and the military-industrial complex.

While researching The Accursed Share, I also happened on the blog with the same name[8] by Nick Srnicek and Kieran Aarons, which features two astounding photos, a shot of Cairo with the Pyramids as backdrop [9] by unknown (credits anyone?) and a photo[10] of German-born photographer Michael Wolf of the densities project.

"Talk[11][12] of Perry Anderson (someone I've been investigating as a knock-on of re-grappling with the incomparable turgor of Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism - supposedly Anderson's The Origins of Postmodernity is a remarkable elucidation of Fred's work on pomo and its relationship with Late Capitalism) reminded me that recently I stumbled across, for the second time, an online deposit[13] from Anderson's shortlived foray into rock criticism. This was in the New Left Review, at the cusp of the Sixties into Seventies, but using the pseudonym Richard Merton. And judging by this one piece, not bad at all: I particularly enjoyed the swipe at Dylan:" --Simon Reynolds[14]