Kazimir Malevich: Economy as the Fifth Dimension

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 215-228

This paper deals with the impact that Karl Marx"s Das Kapital (and especially its fourth volume, the theory of Surplus Value) had on the category of economy in Kazimir Malevich"s output. In a series of texts, Malevich proclaims economy the new criterion of art and the Black Square its embodiment in contemporary painting. While the author was analyzing Marx"s views on labor and human nature, echoes of them turned up in Malevich"s manifestos and philosophical essays where the artist pondered the idea of the liberation of creative exaltation. The article others an interpretation of the creative process itself from the standpoint of economy, which for Malevich provided an opportunity to lay down the foundation for a new kind of art that was consistent with the prevailing ideology. The author points out that while Malevich was in Vitebsk he studied Marx"s works with idea of incorporating economic studies into art: his speculations on the relationships between the ideological superstructure and the practical, economic base were written in the manner of Marxist philosophy and provided the basis for his main essays, The World as Non-Objectivity (1923) and Suprematism: Thee World as Non-Objectivity or Eternal Rest (1923-1924). They defined the new art as an independent ideological superstructure positioned “outside of other contents and ideologies.” Parallel to that, the author examines the correspondence between Malevich"s theory of the surplus element and Marxist doctrines on surplus value. It is also shown that Malevich hoped to prove that, as in dialectical materialism, his new surplus element opens the way to a new artistic structure that is emerging from the womb of the old system in the same way that communism comes about as a kind of heterogeneous body from within the underpinnings of bourgeois society.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaustubh Agashe ◽  
Peizhi Du ◽  
Majid Ekhterachian ◽  
Soubhik Kumar ◽  
Raman Sundrum

Abstract We study the cosmological transition of 5D warped compactifications, from the high-temperature black-brane phase to the low-temperature Randall-Sundrum I phase. The transition proceeds via percolation of bubbles of IR-brane nucleating from the black-brane horizon. The violent bubble dynamics can be a powerful source of observable stochastic gravitational waves. While bubble nucleation is non-perturbative in 5D gravity, it is amenable to semiclassical treatment in terms of a “bounce” configuration interpolating between the two phases. We demonstrate how such a bounce configuration can be smooth enough to maintain 5D effective field theory control, and how a simple ansatz for it places a rigorous lower-bound on the transition rate in the thin-wall regime, and gives plausible estimates more generally. When applied to the Hierarchy Problem, the minimal Goldberger-Wise stabilization of the warped throat leads to a slow transition with significant supercooling. We demonstrate that a simple generalization of the Goldberger-Wise potential modifies the IR-brane dynamics so that the transition completes more promptly. Supercooling determines the dilution of any (dark) matter abundances generated before the transition, potentially at odds with data, while the prompter transition resolves such tensions. We discuss the impact of the different possibilities on the strength of the gravitational wave signals. Via AdS/CFT duality the warped transition gives a theoretically tractable holographic description of the 4D Composite Higgs (de)confinement transition. Our generalization of the Goldberger-Wise mechanism is dual to, and concretely models, our earlier proposal in which the composite dynamics is governed by separate UV and IR RG fixed points. The smooth 5D bounce configuration we introduce complements the 4D dilaton/radion dominance derivation presented in our earlier work.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1468795X2199162
Author(s):  
Georges Gurvitch ◽  
Shaun Murdock

This is a translation from French of a speech given by Georges Gurvitch (1894–1965) originally published in Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie in 1966 under the title ‘Proudhon et Marx’. Gurvitch, who succeeded Émile Durkheim as chair of sociology at the Sorbonne, discusses the significance of the revolutionary socialists Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) and Karl Marx (1818–1883) for the field of sociology. In particular, Gurvitch highlights similarities in their thought such as Proudhon’s collective force and Marx’s surplus value and their shared concern for worker self-management. He argues that their mutual antipathy towards each other was rooted in personal feelings rather than in the incompatibility of their ideas, and calls for a synthesis of their ideas which would correct their errors and inspire ‘a new collectivism, neither Marxist nor Proudhonian, but surpassing both’. Lastly, Gurvitch emphasises the recurrent threat of fascism and stresses ‘decentralised collectivism’ as the only viable alternative going forward.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 55-78
Author(s):  
Simon Morley

I look at the impact of Zen Buddhism on western painters during the 1950s and 1960s, focusing on the monochrome in particular, in order to create a historical context for the consideration of transcultural dialogue in relation to contemporary painting. I argue that a consideration of Zen can offer a ‘middle way’ between conceptions of the monochrome (and art in general) often hobbled by models of interpretation that function within a binary opposition between ‘literalist/sensory’ on the one hand, and ‘intellectual/non-sensory’ readings on the other.


2003 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Hansen

The Parsi theatre was the dominant form of dramatic entertainment in urban India from the 1860s to the 1930s. Named for its Bombay-based pioneers, the Parsi theatre blended certain European practices of stagecraft and commercial organization with Indic, Persian, and English stories, music, and poetry. Through the impact of its touring companies, it had a catalytic effect on the development of modern drama and regional theatre throughout South and Southeast Asia. Moreover, Parsi theatre is widely credited with contributing to popular Indian cinema its genres, aesthetic, and economic base. With Hindi films now the major cultural signifier for the middle classes and the ‘masses’ in South Asia and its diaspora, documentation and evaluation of the Parsi theatre is much needed, especially to connect it convincingly to the cinematic medium that followed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (114) ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
Bertel Nygaard

KARL MARX AND THE UTOPIAN POTENTIALS OF THE PAST | Karl Marx explicitly situated modern emancipation struggles in the present rejecting the power of the past over the presentalong with utopian schemes for the future. But a closer study of his position reveals that his notion of the present was remarkably open towards aspects of the past and potentials for future alternatives, as long as these were conceived from – and as moments within – present struggles. Thus, his rejection ofcertain visions of past and future was mainly a critique of specific ideological configurations characteristic of modern bourgeois society, including reified notions of the past, history and temporality. From this critique we may derive a fruitful, discerning approach to the complex interrelations of utopia, ideology, past, present and future, founded on a critical reconstruction of the category of time as a differentialsocial relation, persistently constructed and reconstructed through conflictual social agency.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Maria Scherlowski Leal David ◽  
José Ramón Martínez-Riera ◽  
Sonia Acioli ◽  
Maria Fernanda de Lima da Costa

ABSTRACT Objective: to analyze the perceptions of Spanish nurses regarding the country’s economic crisis situation, and its impacts on nursing work, health system and population’s health. Methods: qualitative approach, with data collection using an internet-based questionnaire and individual in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed according to Thematic-Categorical Content Analysis, supported by Historical and Dialectical Materialism perspective. Results: the categories produced discuss themes as: cutbacks in health care and the consequences of workforce non-replacement and work overload; salary impact; care model changes; negative impacts on population health. The impact on population health and work was discussed, especially regarding vulnerable groups, as well as in assistance model reconfiguration, reinforcing the biomedical and assistance perspective.


2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (01) ◽  
pp. 141-146
Author(s):  
Gulnaz Tahir Hasanova ◽  

This study aims to highlight the growing strategic importance that cyberspace is gaining in the dynamics of international politics. After land, sea, air, and outer space, cyberspace is the fifth dimension of conflict. The type of non-military weapons used to fight, as well as the subjects targeted, make civilian systems new centers of gravity to defend against an enemy that most often "operates in the shadows." The international scenario rmation revolution (which contributed to the "democratization of information"), is radically evolving from a unipolar (American-led) to an almost multipolar architecture. The Internet today is an indispensable communication and information network for various legal and illegal subjects of international relations. Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram) play a very important role in this process. The Internet can also allow manipulation or even destabilization of the international community with the spread of false information (fake news). It is also a field for intelligence activities. Finally, the Internet is becoming the field of a new form of confrontation. Thus, both states and private actors protect themselves from possible cyber attacks by developing cybersecurity. In anticipation of this, states are developing cyberspace strategies and military-digital capabilities. Key words: international relations, information, cyberspace, cybersecurity, territorial integrity, state, subjects of international relations, information warfare


2021 ◽  

The classic narrative of technology, invention, and patenting in the Atlantic world before 1850 focused on the industrialization of the Atlantic seaboard in Britain and the United States, with the adoption of mechanized cotton and wool textile production based on water power and then steam power, and on the development of related heavy industries. Other parts of the region appeared mainly as suppliers of raw materials, such as cotton from the American South, or as markets for the products of mechanized manufacture. While still a powerful narrative, most recent scholarship has reassessed or nuanced key elements, moving away from the traditional story of “heroic” inventors and toward more complex stories of supply and demand, including the capacity of economies and societies in the Atlantic world to supply the technical, commercial, and financial skills needed for invention and innovation, and the changing patterns of consumption and retail that created demand. Attention has also focused on innovation in other sectors, including armament production, transportation and public utilities, and the impact that innovation had upon the lives of those involved in it. Equally important has been a wider regional focus that now includes the southern territories of the Americas as important sites for innovation. Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx dismissed these areas of plantation agriculture as inefficient and irrelevant, a dead end compared to the centers of commerce and industry. Recent work has revised this by demonstrating the quasi-industrial processes required to process sugar, cotton, tobacco, indigo, and other tropical commodities; the scope for technological improvement; and the vast profits that enabled planters to invest in this technology. Leading plantation colonies such as Jamaica in the 18th century and Cuba in the early 19th century were among the first adopters of the steam engine outside Europe, where it had an equally transformative social and economic impact.


Author(s):  
G. A. Cohen

This chapter explores the question of the nature of the alienation of the bourgeoisie under capitalism. In particular, it considers the distinction made by Karl Marx in The Holy Family between the alienation endured by the worker and the alienation endured by the capitalist in bourgeois society. According to Marx: “The possessing classes and the class of the proletariat present pictures of the same human self-estrangement. But the former class feels at home in and confirmed by this self-estrangement.” The chapter analyzes the meaning of this passage by focusing on a characterization of the human essence in The German Ideology and on the doctrine of alienation articulated in the Paris Manuscripts. It also discusses the worker's alienation in his relation to the machine, and the capitalist's alienation in his relation to money, as well as the latter's relation to his capital. Finally, it restates the contrast between bourgeois and proletarian.


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