Factories of Knowledge, Industries of Creativity

Streifen und Glätten #1

by Gerald Raunig, Antonio Negri (Afterword)

What was once the factory is now the university. As deindustrialization spreads and the working class is decentralized, new means of social resistance and political activism need to be sought in what may be the last places where they are possible: the university and the art world. Gerald Raunig's new book analyzes the potential that cognitive and creative labor has in these two arenas to resist the new regimes of domination imposed by cognitive capitalism. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze's concept of "modulation" as the market-driven imperative for the constant transformation and reinvention of subjectivity, in "Factories of Knowledge, Industries of Creativity," Raunig charts alternative horizons for resistance.

Looking at recent social struggles including the university strikes in Europe, the Spanish Democracia real YA! organization, the Arab revolts, and the Occupy movement, Raunig argues for a reassessment of the importance of cultural and knowledge production. The central role of the university, he asserts, is not as a factory of knowledge but as a place of creative disobedience.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Art, Theory

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Gerald Raunig is a philosopher and art theorist. He works at the Zürich University of the Arts, Zürich and the eipcp (European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies), Vienna. He is coeditor of the multilingual publishing platform Transversal Texts and the Austrian journal Kamion. He is the author of Art and Revolution, A Thousand Machines, and Factories of Knowledge, Industries of Creativity, all published by Semiotext[e].

Reviews

[Colin Bruce Anthes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marx wrote that political economy assumes what it needs to explain; Raunig is a Marxist who sometimes does the same. Raunig launches swift attacks on numerous enemies without even specifying who they are, and his derisive tone makes his strong points and minor contingent ones blend together. With a fury against hierarchy, he proposes an end to peer-reviewed papers to liberate the scholar without bothering to comment on the readers trying to navigate the scholarship. This book is often muddy and not altogether convincing.

And yet. He makes salient points regarding the modulation of the university and the creative sphere. His concern about culture work towards gentrification is totally legitimate. The notion of "occupy everything, demand nothing" is a necessarily crude reminder that democracy is a process not a platform item. And his metaphorical use of Kafka's Josephine the Singer, or The Mouse Folk is masterful.

I only give this three out of five because I'm not convinced the book is well crafted. I think it can be well mined, however.

[michal k-c · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raunig had more on his mind than a mere 160 some pages of material, for better or for worse. the art/creative industries stuff kind of falls apart once you remember what kind of art the CIA was funding throughout the latter half of the twentieth century (odd to go where he does and not once think to bring up any notion of controlled opposition). he is right about time, though. just as the 19th century european insurrectionists shot clocks, it is time for us to start casting our calendars into the sea and allow for the discrete continuation of time that shall no longer be stolen from us, and so on

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book embodies my favourite attributes in scholarly writing: ambitious, complex, rich, leaving achingly-wide spaces for reflection and interpretation, and an incredibly potent capacity for multiple readings.

Raunig explores the university as factory. The factory is used as a metaphor, as a way to think about modulation. But the impact of industrial time (and space) on the university is clearly revealed. What is so remarkable is there is an intensity to the discussion about universities that is aligned with disintermediation and reintermediation. There is profound work in interpretation and reflection - derived from this book - to consider the post-industrial reclamation of the university as an agent for reintermediation.

Powerful. Deep. Convincing. Brilliant.

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

"When today’s activisms turn against a one-sidedly molar project, this does not mean that they neglect aspects of organization and reterritorialization. Yet the streaking of time and space finds its own molecular procedures. Molecular modes of organization are not organic, but rather orgic-industrious, not centered around representation, but non-representationist, not hierarchically differentiating, but radically inclusive. Molecularity does not focus on taking over state power, but it takes effect in the pores of everyday life, in the molecules of forms of living. Molar organization arises as striating reterritorialization, it focuses on struggles on an essence, a main contradiction, a master. In a molecular world of dispersion and multiplicity, a different form of reterritorialization is needed, inclusive and transversal, beyond individual or collective privileges. Instead they smooth and streak territories by crossing through them. The special rights of every single singularity are diametrically opposed to all individual or collective privileges. Yet these special rights only exist where every singularity can fully live its own specialness, try out its own form of concatenation, streak its own time. … No master heads the molecular organization" (p.153).

[Ann Deraedt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heel leuk in het boek is dat er 2 delen zijn en ieder deel begint met een metafoor uit de muizenwereld. Schitterend vind ik het. Echt genieten en de visualisatie meenemen om dan aan het echte gedeelte te beginnen.
Het is geen boek dat ik diagonaal kan lezen. Ik vind het een moeilijk boek maar wel aantrekkelijk. Wellicht heb ik het te snel gelezen om de impact goed te snappen. Ik heb de Nederlandse versie gelezen maar dan nog zeer veel nieuwe woorden met een rijke betekenis. "reterritorialisering" is een voorbeeld en vermoedelijk het woord met de hoogste frequentie. Het wordt zowel in ruimte als tijd gebruikt. Geniaal.
Het eerste deel van het boek "fabrieken van kennis" doet me nadenken over mijn eigen job. Zo hoort het hé.

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense and academic manifesto encouraging distributed, individual, and anti-hierarchical action for artists and knowledge-workers. I was unfamiliar with some of the terminology, and some of the concepts could have been explained more clearly. The author did well outlining problems with hierarchies in current systems of organization, but the solutions were at times rather vague and abstract. I found the mouse allegory to be somewhat confusing as I wasn't familiar with the reference. Overall, it was an interesting read and I enjoyed the topics

[Ebru Eltemur · Rating 5 out of 5]

An in depth look at how contemporary culture has been commodified into an industry. I especially enjoyed how the structure of the chapters shifted, which made Raunig's points even clearer and more concise at certain times. Really eye opening for anyone who's interested in learning about how academia influences culture and how capital systems have become the central power in influencing arts and culture into individual industries.

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the discussion of knowledge factories and culture industries are interesting. However, the whole book seems to be premised upon the value of fairly bunk ideas (learning/self-organized universities in the first half and art/artistic expression in the second).