McKenzie Wark: Never Work, 3-D printing & KimKierkegaardashian as détournement

McKenzie Wark talked to Rhizome about his new book The Spectacle of Disintegration: Situationist Passages Out of the Twenty-First Century; Aaron Swartz and the cultural commons; and KimKierkegaardashian as détournement.

Wark explained the twenty-first century relevance of the SI’s critical approach towards technology, culture and capital:

There’s an absolute failure to perform the critical task in relation to technology. There’s a kind of "No, I don’t like the iPhone." Well, what the fuck do you like then? What do you want? Describe another world. Describe it to me. For seven billion people.  Among the Situationists, someone like Constant Nieuwenhuys did exactly that, he imagined an entire other planet based on mid 20th Century technology. That’s more of a conceptual exercise than a real engineering project, but it opens a door to asking question about how, well, how do you reengineer cities? So that they’re survivable would do for a start, but better than. We really could abolish work, y’know? Not completely. But we could really get it down to a few hours a day. So, well, how’s that project going?

And outlined plans to create a small army of situationists:

"... with the launch of The Spectacle of Disintegration, I’m doing limited edition Guy Debord action figures that are 3D printed, and we’re gonna release the file to print your own for free."

Stay tuned for details on the action figures.

Visit Rhizome to read the interview in full.