Phantasmagoria and the magic system of Capitalism

Walter Benjamin

July 18, 2012
Phantasmagoria and the magic system of Capitalism
Universität Potsdam, Institut für Philosophie
Am Neuen Palais 10 [Haus 9, Raum 1.14], 14469 Potsdam, Germany

A day devoted to the problem of the aestheticization of political economy, yesterday and today. How can we mobilize the concept of Walter Benjamin's phantasmagoria, born in the nineteenth-century world fairs, and shopping malls in the twenty-first century? In contrast, as Althusser would have to reconstruct analysis, we'll read about his attempt to examine Disneyland as a new "strategy of bourgeois"?

With plenary lectures by Gerard Raulet (Paris), Marc Berdet (Potsdam) and images + sound from Brian Bixby (artist, Berlin)

Original Text in French:

Fantasmagories et régime magique du capitalisme

Journée consacrée au problème de l’esthétisation de l’économie politique, hier et aujourd’hui. Comment peut-on mobiliser le concept benjaminien de fantasmagorie, né dans les expositions universelles du xixe siècle, et les shopping-malls du xxie siècle ? Comment reconstruire l’analyse althussérienne en suivant son souhait d’analyser Disneyland comme nouvelle « stratégie de la bourgeoise » ?

Plénières : Gérard Raulet (Paris), Marc Berdet (Potsdam) avec Brian Bixby (artiste, Berlin)

PHANTASMAGORIA exhibition at Kaleidoskop

July 03 - July 08, 2011
PHANTASMAGORIA
kaleidoskop
Boddinstrasse 7, 12053, Berlin, Germany

The conference Phantasmagorical Berlin, before and after the fall of the wall has invited Berlin-based, international artists to visualize their thoughts on the phantasmagorias found in the past and present.


PHANTASMAGORIA, flyer design, 2011
PHANTASMAGORIA is everywhere: it composes the collective imagery that accompanies capitalism since the 19th Century. Whether in the 20th century World Exhibitions or in current shopping malls, phantasmagoria is a transfiguration of merchandise into poetry without visible indication of its ambiguous social utility, of the troubled history of its production or of its class-struggle-related price.

Artists: Brian Bixby, Yemima Fink, Giulia Palombino, Lior Wiletzik, Natalie van Sasse van Ysselt, Gabriel S. Moses, Roee Sufrin. Performance by Valeska Peschke. 
 

In Gaudi’s architecture, phantasmagoria transformed the tectonic elements into vegetal and organic ones, modern technique into pre-modern aesthetics. In this transformation, some utopian motives of a classless society, expressed into poetry or natural life, are embedded. They are disconnected from their material forces, the forces of nature and of technique, as humanized – and from humans, as naturalized. Instead of continuing to dream  in phantasmagorical spaces, we have to connect this dream with our awaked action, to interpret the dream in order to realize its profound impact. - Marc Berdet, 2011

Currents 2011

June 10-19, 2011
Currents 2011
2nd Annual Santa Fe International New Media Festival,
El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

interference, 2011, interactive video environment, Brian Bixby, Charles Buckingham, Mike Root

The installation, interference, reflects our observations about human displacement of natural resources. interference is an interactive video environment which uses an infrared 3D scan of each viewer to manipulate a combination of video, photography, animation, and sound. According to their persistence of presence, and their proximity to the Xbox Kinect visitors ghost-like shadows are inserted into the scene which progressively degrades from pristine nature into apocalyptic rubble.

interference, 2011, interactive video environment, Brian Bixby, Charles Buckingham, Mike Root

EDITION N.1:WONDERLAND

APRIL 15 - 24, 2011
EDITION N.1:WONDERLAND, curated by Chun-Chi Wang
GlogauAIR
Glogauerstrasse 16, 10999 Berlin, Germany

IDOLON STUDIO is pleased to present Edition N.1 : WONDERLAND. The exhibition will open on April 15 and will be on view until April 24. The opening reception scheduled for Friday, April 15, 8pm will include a live concert by Cedrik Fermont (BE) beginning at 9.00 pm.

Edition N.1 : WONDERLAND brings together film and digital video by six contemporary artists of Kreppa by Klaus Taschler (AT), Reveries in a Small World by Yin-Ju Chen (TW/USA) & James T.Hong (USA), Memory of a Desert Journey by Brian Bixby (USA) & Jeffers Egan (USA) & Midori Hirano (JP).
 

Memory of a Desert Journey, installation view, Glogair Gallery, Berlin

I'm Looking For You

Saturday, January 22
I'm Looking For You | WEEKENDHAUS #3 presented by tamtamART
Fuggerstrasse 34, 10777, Berlin, Germany

I will be presenting new mixed-media work for my part of the WEEKENDHAUS exhibition.

When a person sets out with the intention to look for someone they may be able to find themselves in the process. On the path to find ourselves there are many questions. Not all of them can be answered. I’m Looking For You is an exploration of ourselves and people we haven’t met yet. The artists in this exhibition are using a combination of Installation, Photographs, Videos and Texts to explore these questions.

WEEKENDHAUS is a 10 session project. Artists are invited to submit works to represent through their creative ideas in conjunction with a traditional family home. The exhibition takes place in an inhabited apartment. Visit tamtamART.com for additional information.

Artists: Delphine Marinier, Brian Bixby

Postcard image for the exhibition, I'm Looking For You.

Update on Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 8:59PM by Brian Bixby

i'm looking for you, installation view, 2011. Artist: Delphine Marinier

you can find it in the darkest places, installation view, 2011, pigmented inkjet prints, dead flower arrangement, black light. Artist: Brian Bixby

shedding, installation view, 2011, 2-channel HD video projection. Artist: Brian Bixby