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Facing Value: Radical Perspectives from the Arts
Value is an important concept in contemporary society, an immaterial force shaping the way we live together. Today, however, we seem to measure value only in terms of time and money. To reformulate value as a constitutive factor in an open and caring society requires a new way of looking that can reclaim it from the logic of capital.
Facing Value anthologizes the work of philosophers, scientists, historians, architects and economists including Walter Benjamin, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Michel de Certeau, Anthony Huberman, Charles Jencks, Siegfried Kracauer, Jan Ritsema, Viktor Shklovsky and Jan Verwoert, presenting alternative visions of value that will inspire readers to regain personal power, share energy and creativity, and build toward a vital and just society. Alternative values--like hesitation, care, giving and disconnection--are proposed as potential foci of new value systems.
Facing Value anthologizes the work of philosophers, scientists, historians, architects and economists including Walter Benjamin, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Michel de Certeau, Anthony Huberman, Charles Jencks, Siegfried Kracauer, Jan Ritsema, Viktor Shklovsky and Jan Verwoert, presenting alternative visions of value that will inspire readers to regain personal power, share energy and creativity, and build toward a vital and just society. Alternative values--like hesitation, care, giving and disconnection--are proposed as potential foci of new value systems.
444 pages, Paperback
Published June 27, 2017
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About the author
Walter Benjamin
844 books2,069 followersWalter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, Jewish mysticism, and neo-Kantianism, Benjamin made influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. He was associated with the Frankfurt School and also maintained formative friendships with thinkers such as playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem. He was related to German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to Benjamin's cousin Günther Anders, though the friendship between Arendt and Benjamin outlasted her marriage to Anders. Both Arendt and Anders were students of Martin Heidegger, whom Benjamin considered a nemesis.
Among Benjamin's best known works are the essays "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) and "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (1940). His major work as a literary critic included essays on Charles Baudelaire, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Franz Kafka, Karl Kraus, Nikolai Leskov, Marcel Proust, Robert Walser, Trauerspiel and translation theory. He also made major translations into German of the Tableaux Parisiens section of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal and parts of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.
Of the hidden principle organizing Walter Benjamin's thought Scholem wrote unequivocally that "Benjamin was a philosopher", while his younger colleagues Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno contend that he was "not a philosopher". Scholem remarked "The peculiar aura of authority emanating from his work tended to incite contradiction". Benjamin himself considered his research to be theological, though he eschewed all recourse to traditionally metaphysical sources of transcendentally revealed authority.
In 1940, at the age of 48, Benjamin died by suicide at Portbou on the French Spanish border while attempting to escape the advance of the Third Reich. Though popular acclaim eluded him during his life, the decades following his death won his work posthumous renown.
Among Benjamin's best known works are the essays "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) and "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (1940). His major work as a literary critic included essays on Charles Baudelaire, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Franz Kafka, Karl Kraus, Nikolai Leskov, Marcel Proust, Robert Walser, Trauerspiel and translation theory. He also made major translations into German of the Tableaux Parisiens section of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal and parts of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.
Of the hidden principle organizing Walter Benjamin's thought Scholem wrote unequivocally that "Benjamin was a philosopher", while his younger colleagues Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno contend that he was "not a philosopher". Scholem remarked "The peculiar aura of authority emanating from his work tended to incite contradiction". Benjamin himself considered his research to be theological, though he eschewed all recourse to traditionally metaphysical sources of transcendentally revealed authority.
In 1940, at the age of 48, Benjamin died by suicide at Portbou on the French Spanish border while attempting to escape the advance of the Third Reich. Though popular acclaim eluded him during his life, the decades following his death won his work posthumous renown.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 3, 2019
Well, the book came in exactly the right time I needed it. It was super interesting in the beginning and the end with a little bit of plateau moments in the middle.
According to the afterword, they have separated the content into three chapters. The first one was dealing with value in the financial sense but also work and leisure. It was super interesting to read about the capitalist system and how boredom and leisure time fits into it. When Foucault came in, things started getting out of hand. I just have a hard time with French structuralism—very very interesting ideas, but really convoluted language... Oh, well, I needed a little bit more concentration. But great reads were: Beverley Skeggs’ Values beyond value?, Bojana Kunst’s On laziness and less work, Jan Verwoert’s Exhaustion and exuberance and lastly Marcel Mauss’ The exchange of gifts and the obligation to reciprocate(Polynesia).
The second part was boring for me because it was too abstract, too far away from what I started the book for. However, things took interesting turns and I can see value as quite a multifaceted term now. Interesting works: Navid Nuur’s Another window in my studio, Krijn Giezen’s Mail order and the geodesic dome by Buckminster Fuller. The literary works by him and Evgeny Morozov (Making it: pick up a spot welder and join the revolution) were enriching.
Third part focused on society and how we live “together”. That was quite interesting also. Special mention: Céline Condorelli about supporting structures, Mierle Laderman Ukeles with “cleaning performance—Hartford Wash” and the curious architecture of Frank van Klingeren.
According to the afterword, they have separated the content into three chapters. The first one was dealing with value in the financial sense but also work and leisure. It was super interesting to read about the capitalist system and how boredom and leisure time fits into it. When Foucault came in, things started getting out of hand. I just have a hard time with French structuralism—very very interesting ideas, but really convoluted language... Oh, well, I needed a little bit more concentration. But great reads were: Beverley Skeggs’ Values beyond value?, Bojana Kunst’s On laziness and less work, Jan Verwoert’s Exhaustion and exuberance and lastly Marcel Mauss’ The exchange of gifts and the obligation to reciprocate(Polynesia).
The second part was boring for me because it was too abstract, too far away from what I started the book for. However, things took interesting turns and I can see value as quite a multifaceted term now. Interesting works: Navid Nuur’s Another window in my studio, Krijn Giezen’s Mail order and the geodesic dome by Buckminster Fuller. The literary works by him and Evgeny Morozov (Making it: pick up a spot welder and join the revolution) were enriching.
Third part focused on society and how we live “together”. That was quite interesting also. Special mention: Céline Condorelli about supporting structures, Mierle Laderman Ukeles with “cleaning performance—Hartford Wash” and the curious architecture of Frank van Klingeren.
July 9, 2017
The book investigates value in non-economic terms through series of essays and interviews on uncertainty, conceptual art, time, alternative social modules, human experience, experimental architecture, etc. It may seem a bit random at first, but the idea of tackling different ways to reformulate value is the whole point of this anthology. A good read for those just starting to investigate the issue, as long bibliographies after each essay hint towards further research on a particular subject.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews