Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper considers a new framework which scholars and artists across the board might draw from: an artificial commons, the materialization of collective memory constituted through the products and artifacts of capitalism which seeks to both engender class consciousness and realize a post-capitalist future. The theorization of an “artificial commons” is derived out of a need for cultural submersion into our true reality of human vulnerability, the interconnectedness of all. It uses technology, the “digital turn” in humanities, and forms of mass and pop culture which proliferate often through social media today to bring about the cultural solidarity required for revolutionary action, a necessary component even Marx foresaw. Theoretically, it draws from Carl Jung’s supposition of a collective unconscious, Frantz Fanon’s critique of tacit cultural imposition, Mark Fisher’s envisioning of hauntological nostalgia, the Letterists’ and Situationists’ strategy of détournement, Brazilian anthropophagist philosophy, and contemporary Afrofuturist writing in the vein of Alondra Nelson. Hegel believed complete self-realization to be impossible in the objective world, which is why he placed such emphasis on the possibilities of art and religion, which adopt a new power in our cloud era. While these are often interpreted as intellectual pursuits, the visceral, cathartic dimension of these endeavors cannot be overlooked, and are here taken up alongside religious and transhumanist interventions. This paper aims to manifest the radical potential of knowledge production in the virtual age. It presents one vision for how we might responsibly, courageously dream a future outside the confines of an ivory tower.