This is the time of conceptive ideologues no longer1

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes [1] Lecture held at the colloquium of the European Center Hellerau and the Institute for New Music of the Musikhochschule, Dresden, October 2006. First published in German in MusikTexte, 113, May 2007. Used with permission. Translated from the German by Philipp Blume. [2] cf. klaus and buhr, 1972 Georg Klaus Manfred Buhr Marxistisch leninistisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie Rowohlt Press Reinbek 1972 2 [Google Scholar], entry ‘ideologie’, p. 546. [3]‘the self-preservation drive of the intellect has no counterpart in reason. an epoch which sets its self-preservation instinct on means of destruction, of which earlier times would not have dared to dream, unmasks the self-destructive character of all unmediated self-preservation.’ [4] questions that arose in the discussion following this lecture appear to warrant the following comment: this text is not intended to settle a score with anyone: it should be taken more as a plea, to remind people to look beyond differences of interest to consider what all those have in common that live on this planet and are dependent on wages or salary. [5] biblis A: a nuclear power plant in Hessia, scheduled to close down in February 2007. [6]‘suppose we had produced as humans: each of us would have doubly affirmed himself and the other. i would firstly demonstrate my individuality in what i produce, created an embodiment of its peculiarities, and thus in the act of production enjoyed an individual expression of my vitality, taking a singular joy in seeing in the object my own personality as objectified, made available for sensual contemplation, and thus beyond any doubt knowing its exalted power. secondly, in your enjoyment or use of my product i have the unmediated pleasure not only of being aware of having satisfied a human need with my work, thus having embodied the human being and provided the need of another human being with the object that fulfills that need. thirdly, to have been the go-between between you and your species, to be known and regarded by you as a complement to your own being and a necessary part of your self , that is, to feel re-affirmed by your regard and your love. fourth, in my own vital expression to have produced your vital expression as well, meaning that my activity has reaffirmed and made real my true self, my human, my communal self … my work would be a voluntary expression of life, and thus a pleasure of life.’ [7] the title of the colloquium at which this lecture was presented was ‘freiräume und spannungsfelder’ (‘free spaces and fields of activity’); it took place from 5 to 7 october 2006 at the european center for the arts in dresden-hellerau. [8]‘wirklichkeit des bewusstseins und wirklichkeit für das bewusstsein’ (actuality of consciousness and actuality for the consciousness), in: musiktexte, 39, 39–41. cologne, april 1991. [9]‘presumably poetry cannot stand on its own there, where no common ground exists, from which its figures emerge, and no common great light that breathes life into them, gives them their way of having a fate.’ in bloch, 1964. [10] realistic is illusory. realism is a means of representation among many, not reality itself. the photographer is never in the picture which he is taking. from this it cannot be assumed, however, that after the removal of the subject the objective reality remains; the representing subject does not sign his work, like the painter, but rather remains hidden behind the camera. [11]‘language is as old as consciousness—language is the practical consciousness, because it also exists for other people, thus especially for me … hence consciousness is from the beginning already a product of society …’