Christy Reynolds, University of Oregon, “Profane Illumination of Nature and Culture: Benjamin, Burtynsky, and the Problems of Capitalist Perception” surrounded by outmoded commodities that are now left to deteriorate environments as dialectical images: symptoms of progress and regress Breton and Aragon bringing the atmosphere to explosive intensity (Benjamin on “The Outmoded” obsolescence, even decomposition as material object one avoids Burtynsky movies about the outmoded; huge piles of things that aren’t often seen an artist fascinated by abandoned manufacturing sites that resemble ancient ruins, creating sublime landscapes inadvertently Carrara Marble Quarries #20 appears to be alpin mountains but you actually see incisions into the mountains, that appear almost cubist marble as raw material of Apollo Belvedere; you see the history of the marble extraction as integral to the life of these works Oxford Tire Pile #5 breaks nature–culture distinction perception and lived experience labor breaks down the nature–culture distinction; by concealing labor capitalism creates the distinction response by Joe Weiss, DePaul University “nothing shocks anymore” the sixth great extinction event making the mere collapse of industrial society look like a sideshow bagatelle narrative that enables capitalism capitalist dualism critique by Reynolds; how do we understand how the shudder before the constellation being reified appealing to the aesthetic dimension is important because cognition was never really divided from reality in the first place Umschladzeit (turnover time): increases as capitalism continues, so the tires pile up unlike religious illumination bedazzled by the ideological reflex brings us down to Earth, we might become more responsible less wasteful consumers celebration in advance violating the taboo on graven images showing the connection of nature and culture by avoiding going into nature but going into trash, avoiding therefore the ideology of nature music as closest to and most distant from us, which is why it summons the depths profane illumination doesn’t just reveal a political truth but a historical one that, mistrustful of all meaning, expels the moral metaphor does Burtynsky do away with the bad intentionality of the spell of subjectivity Part 2 of Capital 2: on the turnover of capital on Umschlag (turnover) does not the Umschlag remain a cypher to be read? What would the condition be if the Umschlag never turned back on itself Question: the focus on the aesthetic is interesting. is the problem of capitalist dualism a perceptual or a material problem? A problem with the world itself or with how we think about the world? It seemed as if Reynolds was on the side of the perceptual problem. Answer: Reynolds’ own inability to get past the nature–culture dualism: how she interacts here is different from how we would if we were out on Chicago Wilderness prairie She does want to focus on perception Question: photography as medium. Tel Aviv professor essay on the Dividing Wall in Jerusalem photography versus aesthetics; seeing things as beautiful compromises their political reality? Bringing value to the invisible. Answer: I thought Burtynsky could get us around these constructs. I read him this way because frankly that’s how I responded. Burtynsky carefully doesn’t assign meanings to his work. You can have a profane illumination from going to this place or seeing something on the sidewalk. It doesn’t have to be through a work of art But I do think that I see B. as bringing value to the valueless. Perry: what do you mean by experience? Why does adding music to images make it stronger? Why does theoretical writing not count as an experience or even as a labor experience? Answer: I need to think more about it. Question: the focus on commodity fetishism. The dislocation really happens in the commodification in labor. What do you think about Marx’s notion of humans ruptured from nature? Town vs. country? John Bellamy Foster, the ecological rip, having to produce sinks because of our production The 1844 Manuscripts. I worry when I read his earlier stuff. That’s where he develops his idea of alienated labor. I worry he’s guilty of the things he’s talking about today at this conference. A hypostasized Nature.
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