Marx against Marxism, Marxism against Marx

A Talk with Valery Podoroga on Soviet Philosoph

Introduction: Antiquity and Modernity of Soviet Marxism

Fredric Jameson once pointed out that the Marxist tradition is already our Antiquity due to its significance and historical distance. This distance allows us to view it from the outside, and to reinvent Marxism for our own time. The same could be said about the most paradoxical version of this tradition's Soviet Marxism. However, there are particular qualities that single it out from the classical antiquity of Marxist tradition. Even internationally known Soviet works (by Vygotsky, Bakhtin, amongst В­others) are not perceived as belonging to a unitary theoretical tradition, and are even less associated with Marxism and the heritage of 1917. It may therefore seem that the October Revolution of 1917, although being recognized as the key event of the short twentieth century has not created a universally recognizable and consolidated body of thought. It is, therefore, a difficult task to outline this field, and this is why the current lens of historical distance might be helpful in attempting to grasp both this unity and the richness of its internal differentiations

How much could sexuality cost

Sexuality is not possible without phantasm, phantasm is not possible without the imaginaries maintained by private property. Private property resides in surplus economy. Surplus economy is libidinal. The question would then be: how much could sexuality cost? Or does sexuality vanish if the economy stops to be libidinal?Published versio

Who makes revolution in the age of speculative design?

Contemporary theories of social emancipation contend that it is time to dispense with the concept of revolution and leave it merely as the legacy of political struggles belonging to the age of industrial economy. Today’s globalization, semio-capital, speculative design, crypto-economy, and artificial intelligence would engage epistemologically different emancipatory lexicons and techniques of resistance. All new futurisms posit technological solutions for hitherto political stakes. What remains unheeded in them is the existential need for cognitive equality and social continuity with the masses in constructing the collective subject of emancipation. Recent election results in the U.S., U.K., Eastern Europe, and Russia diagnose an immense cognitive rupture between the producers of emancipatory lexicons and disadvantaged workers. Such a split between mind and body was already made apparent in Hegel’s dialectics of lord and bondsman. In order to surpass this split, it is of utmost importance to reconsider the conditions in which the premature construction of the proletariat took place in the context of the October revolution. The proletariat was posited in this case not only as revolutionary subject, but as the principal subject of Enlightenment as well.European UnionPublished versio

Repetition as the performative syndrome of dying

In his Difference and Repetition Deleuze reveals an aporia: repetition is singular, solitary, it is torn away from any original or source; nevertheless it preserves a genetic tie with certain event to which it is a repetition. This solitariness of the repetition is not, however, confined to mere difference between the act of repetition and the repeated source that cancels the original just to differentiate two performative procedures. An act of repetition is solitary only when it evolves in specific time-regime, which even ontically diverges from the regular ontology of time. Deleuze calls such temporality “empty”, Nietzsche defines it as amor fati, Heidegger sees in it convergence of eternity and an instant. The stake in this case is a specific kind of repetitive regime which unfolds as the performative syndrome of ‘dying’ – a “repetition into death” (Deleuze) which paradoxically executes itself as performative plenitude. But who is the Subject undergoing such a syndrome and what should have happened to her/him so as to impose the regime of dying on any act of repetition?Results incorporated in this publication have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 752417.Published onlin

Integration of iron in natural and synthetic Al-pyrophyllites: an infrared spectroscopic study

Numerous studies focus on the relationships between chemical composition and OHband positions in the infrared (IR) spectra of micaceous minerals. These studies are based on the coexistence, in dioctahedral micas or smectites, of several cationic pairs around the hydroxyl group which each produce a characteristic band in the IR spectrum. The aim of this work is to obtain the wavenumber values of the IR OH vibration bands of the (Al-Fe3+)-OH and (Fe3+-Fe3+)-OH local cationic environments of 'pyrophyllite type' in order to prove, disprove or modify a model of dioctahedral phyllosilicate OH-stretching band decomposition. Natural samples are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopies and electron microprobe; the hydrothermal synthesis products are also analysed by powder XRD and FTIR after inductively coupled plasma measurements to obtain the chemical compositions of nascent gel phases. Natural samples contain some impurities which were eliminated after acid treatment; nevertheless, a small Fe content is found in the pyrophyllite structure. The amount of Fe which is incorporated within the pyrophyllite structure is much more important for the synthetic samples than for the natural ones. The IR OH bands were clearly observed in both natural and synthetic pyrophyllites and assigned to hydroxides bonded to (Al-Al), (Al-Fe) and (Fe-Fe) cationic pairs. During this study, three samples were analysed by DTG to check the cis- or trans-vacant character of the layers and to determine the influence of this structural character on the OH-stretching band position in IR spectroscopy

Loving work: drawing attention to pleasure and pain in the body of the cultural worker

In this article, we present our current research into the body and mind at work, with a particular focus on experiences and implications of enjoyment and love of work within the culture sector. This research is developed through the project Manual Labours that explores the historical conditioning between the body and mind in the so-called immaterial labour conditions. The project aims to identify positive and negative affective labour and the role that physical relationships to work can have in helping conceptualise current working conditions. The enjoyment of work leads to complex differentiations between work and life. This article explores the implications of exploitative labour conditions as self-employed or salaried passionate workers are internalising and developing a sense of ‘un-alienated’ ownership over their wage labour

Этнокультуральный подход к превенции алкогольного потребления у тувинцев

The aim of the study was to study ethno­cultural factors that can contribute to the formation of alcohol dependence, and at the same time serve as reference points in the development of prevention programs. The inefficiency of the primary alcoholism prevention system in the Republic of Tuva is ascer­tained, which leads to an increase in the incidence of alcoholism and alcoholic psychoses. The capabil­ities of existing diagnostic and preventive measures are considered unsatisfactory. The research method­ology was V. S. Vygotsky, who explains the existing problems with unsatisfactory social interactions. The provocative factors of alcoholization are the emotional characteristics of Tuvans and the specifics of their emotional response, which were optimal in the conditions of life within the steppe civilization, but in the post-modern world impede psychosocial adapta­tion. The article substantiates the culturally-related alexithymia associated with the predominant right hemisphere of the Tuvans, which complicates the communicative process, reduces psychological sta­bility, and contributes to the appearance of anxiety, which generally provokes alcoholic motivations. The state of spiritual and psychosocial maladaptation is easily stopped by alcohol intake. The backbone of al­coholism can be considered an unconscious desire to get into the zone of personal comfort. Tuvinians are incompetent with respect to some national traditions, including the original rules for drinking alcohol. Particular emphasis is placed on reducing the wide­spread use of Tuvan throat singing, which has a har­monizing effect. Experimental data on the influence of khoomei on the psychoemotional state of Tuvans are presented. As part of the analysis, the possible direc­tions of preventive measures are indicated. The main target of prevention of alcohol consumption among Tuvans is the formation of awareness.Целью исследования было изучение эт­нокультуральных факторов, которые могут спо­собствовать формированию зависимости от алко­голя, и в то же время служить реперными точками при разработке программ профилактики. Конста­тируется неэффективность системы первичной профилактики алкоголизма в Республике Тыва, что обусловливает рост заболеваемости алкого­лизмом и алкогольными психозами. Возможности существующих диагностических и превентивных мероприятий признаются неудовлетворительны­ми. Методологией исследования явился культур­но-исторический подход В. С. Выготского, который объясняет существующие проблемы неудовлет­ворительными социальными взаимодействиями. Провоцирующими факторами алкоголизации при­знаются эмоциональные особенности тувинцев и специфика их эмоционального реагирования, ко­торые были оптимальными в условиях жизнедея­тельности внутри степной цивилизации, но в по­стсовременном мире затрудняют психосоциальную адаптацию. Приводится обоснование культурально обусловленной алекситимии, связанной с преимуще­ственной правополушарностью тувинцев, которая усложняет коммуникативный процесс, снижает психологическую устойчивость, способствует по­явлению тревоги, что в целом провоцирует алко­гольные мотивации. Состояние духовной и психосо­циальной дезадаптации легко купируется приемом алкоголя. Системообразующим фактором алкого­лизации можно считать неосознаваемое стремле­ние попасть в зону личностного комфорта. Отме­чается некомпетентность тувинцев в отношении некоторых национальных традиций, в том числе, исконных правил употребления алкогольных напит­ков. Особый акцент делается на редуцировании повсеместного использования тувинского горлово­го пения, которое обладает гармонизирующим эф­фектом. Приводятся экспериментальные данные о влиянии хоомэй на психоэмоциональное состоя­ние тувинцев. В рамках проведенного анализа ука­зываются возможные направления превентивных мероприятий. Основной мишенью профилактики алкогольного потребления у тувинцев необходимо считать формирование осознанности