Beyond language and the subject: machinic enslavement in contemporary European cinema

Contemporary subjection, notes Maurizio Lazzarato, has two very different dimensions, subjectivation (our production as subjects) and machinic enslavement (the way in which sub- and supra-individual human elements are put to work as cogs in complex machineries that are never simply technical machines). Although the latter form of subjection is increasingly dominant, critical theory almost always focuses on the former. With its intrinsically machinic functioning, cinema seems ideally placed to open up our machinic subjection to scrutiny. Can it become the Vertovian self-consciousness of a collective, machinic subject, or is it simply condemned to anticipate and embody the way in which consumer capitalism puts the human psyche and affectivity to work? Suggesting that such a polarised set of alternatives is too schematic, this article probes four contemporary, and very dissimilar, European films, sounding out their capacity to bring the machinic into view and make it available for self-reflexive engagement. The article draws its main theoretical inspiration from the work of contemporary social theorist, Maurizio Lazzarato, but also draws on other thinkers where relevant. The films discussed are Ma part du gâteau (Klapisch, 2011), Abenland (Geyrhalter, 2011), Lucy (Besson, 2014) and Vers Madrid: the Burning Bright (George, 2012)

MACHINABILITY STUDY AND FEM ANALYSIS OF UD-CFRP COMPOSITE MTM 44-1 MATERIAL UNDER ORTHOGONAL CUTTING CONDITION

Several engineering applications in the aerospace, marine, military and automotive industries have introduced modern synthetic composites as a substitute to metals due to their high specific strength and stiffness. Furthermore, their high corrosion resistance and lightweight make the aerospace industry the largest beneficiary of these materials. While the advantages of using composite materials are well known designers have to face their limitations. Being relatively new materials further studies are still required to better understand their actual limits, related to the high materials cost and the manufacturing process complexity when compared to metals. The aim of this project was to analyse some of the machinability challenges set by Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) and provide a better understanding of the relationship between a number of process parameters and relative cutting forces generated during the machining process. A Finite Element Model (FEM) was created to predict cutting forces during orthogonal cutting of Unidirectional Carbon Fibre Reinforce Polymer (UD-CFRP) composite material. The material analysed was a MTM 44-1 low density toughened epoxy matrix system particularly suited for the production of both primary and secondary aircraft structures. The work-piece was considered as an Equivalent Orthotropic Homogeneous Material (EOHM) alongside with a failure mechanism model using the Chang-Chang criteria. Experimental tests were performed on a lathe machine tool in order to compare and validate simulation results. Polycrystalline diamond (PCD) inserts were used to carry out the tests. Work-pieces with a ring shape were used for experimental tests to obtain suitable data. The specimens were carefully designed and built at the Advance Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) based in Sheffield. Six different fibre orientations, two cutting speeds and four feed rates have been used to generate a full set of experimental data. The cutting force results highlighted a dependency between cutting parameters and fibre orientations of the CFRP specimens. The results have shown that fibre orientation is a key factor that governs failure mechanisms, chip formations, surface integrity and cutting forces. Both the experimental tests and the FEM analysis have confirmed the influence that the feed rate has on the cutting forces. Conversely, negligible effects were observed when increasing the cutting speed at the tested cutting conditions

Ob ponovnem branju Lenina

Peut-on séparer la soi – disant économie réelle de la soi – disant économie virtuelle, le capital industriel et commercial, du capital financier ? Est-il possible de penser le cycle économique du capital comme le passage de l’accumulation matérielle à l’accumulation financière (Giovanni Arrighi) ? Le capital financier est-il une spécificité de notre époque, puisque il représenterait l’expression monétaire de l’économie cognitive, de la société de l’information et du savoir (Mouhoud el Mouhoub)? Constitue-il une dégénérescence, un « excès », une anomalie du capital industriel et de son éthique du travail et de l’effort ? La lecture de « Impérialisme stade suprême du capitalisme » et de la littérature économique qu’il mobilise nous sollicitent à redéfinir le concept de capital à partir du capital financier et à dessiner une périodisation du développement capitalisme qui tienne compte de sa fonction « hégémonique ». Aujourd’hui la situation est évidemment très différente de celle de Lénine et pour certains aspects, plus dramatique.Je mogoče ločiti tako imenovano realno ekonomijo od tako imenovane virtualne ekonomije, industrijski in trgovski kapital od finančnega? Je mogoče razumeti ekonomski cikel kapitala kot prehajanje od materialne akumulacije k finančni akumulaciji (Giovanni Arrighi)? Je finančni kapital nekakšna specifika našega časa, ker naj bi bil monetarni izraz kognitivne ekonomije, informacijske družbe in družbe znanja (Mouhoud el Mouhoub)? Ali pa morda ustvarja nekakšno degeneracijo, »eksces«, anomalijo industrijskega kapitala in njene etike, dela in napora? Branje Leninovega dela »Imperializem kot najvišji stadij kapitalizma« in nabora preostale ekonomske literature, ki iz tega dela izhaja, nas sili k redefiniciji koncepta kapitala izhajajoč iz finančnega kapitala in k orisu periodizacije razvoja kapitalizma, ki bi upoštevala njegovo »hegemonsko« funkcijo. Razmere so danes očitno ze