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1Art, Politics, Dark Matter:Nine ProloguesThroughout history, living labor has, along with the surplus value extracted from it, carriedon its own production—within fantasy.Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge 1SwampwallFor more than 30 years a close relation of mine has worked in the shipping andreceiving department of a non-unionized factory in Northeast Pennsylvania. Earlyon in his employment he and several of his co-workers spent their work breaksattaching newspaper clippings, snapshots, spent soda cans, industrial debris,trashed food containers and similar bits and pieces of day-to-day detritus to onewall of the plant. After a few years this accumulated clutter covered most of thewall. The workers christened their impromptu collage the Swampwall. The ownerof the factory, an aging sole-proprietor in a world of mergers and multinationals,long tolerated this workplace diversion until a global corporation bought out hiscompany. A structural adjustment followed. Dozens of “redundant” employeeslost their jobs. The manufacturing division of the factory was downsized, servicesemphasized, and post-Fordist systems of inventory and just-in-time outsourcingimplemented. Needless to say, Swampwall was expunged. And though its makersremained employed they were tasked with higher productivity as their pensions,sick pay, health care, and other benefits were reduced through privatization. Whatwas Swampwall? Notwithstanding the recent popularity of de-skilled slack artand “clutterfuck”—slap-dash cartoons pinned randomly to gallery walls; clumpsof ephemera or manufactured goods spread haphazardly over museum floors;recycled cardboard and cheap packing-tape sculpture, or paintings made to appearthe work of an amateur or Sunday painter—Swampwall was not art. Just comparemy description of Swampwall to the way the contemporary American artist TonyFeher reputedly transforms “humble, ‘forgettable’ materials that he finds—bottles,jars, plastic soda crates ... into work that is rich with human emotion and fragilebeauty.” 2 None of the factory workers ever attended college; none had likelyever visited an art museum. Their collaborative frieze was only visible to those23
24 Dark matterPicasso’s monumental Guernica momentarily shifts from aesthetic object to activistintervention as the painting’s anti-war imagery is re-imagined as a jigsaw puzzle of picketsigns carried aloft by a flock of art students protesting the concealment of a tapestry of theiconic artwork behind blue drapes during Colin Powell’s infamous UN speech leading upto the war in Iraq. This image was taken during the unprecedented global protest againstUS military action in February of 2003. Image courtesy Gregory Sholette.with business in that particular wing of the plant; an uninviting, sweat-soakedwarehouse filled with forklifts, loading pallets, and packing crates far from the tidycubicles and product showrooms of upper management. As a haphazard archiveof the everyday, Swampwall most closely resembled a spontaneous memorial todead time. However, insofar as these workers made manifest a desire to directsome portion of their energy elsewhere, just as they pleased, Swampwall alsorepresented a fantasy of autonomy. Not just any fantasy, not fantasy as illusionor self-delusion, but instead as Kluge and Negt point out, fantasy in the formof production, or, as Miriam Hansen succinctly puts it, “imaginative strategiesgrounded in the experience of production—protest energies, psychic balancingacts, a penchant for personalization, individual and collective fantasy, and creativere-appropriations.” 3
Page 2 and 3: Dark Matter
Page 4 and 5: Dark MatterArt and Politics in the
Page 6: This book is dedicated to Lucy R. L
Page 10 and 11: Series PrefaceMarxists frequently p
Page 12 and 13: AcknowledgmentsA substantial roster
Page 14 and 15: Exordium: An Accidental RemainderMa
Page 16: exordium: an accidental remainderxv
Page 19 and 20: 2 Dark matterThe first newsletter o
Page 21 and 22: 4 Dark matteressays that make up th
Page 23 and 24: 6 Dark matterto separate art from n
Page 25 and 26: 8 Dark mattera recall to the opport
Page 27 and 28: 10 Dark matterNew York Newsday, Jun
Page 29 and 30: 12 Dark matterincludes media pranks
Page 31 and 32: 14 Dark mattercultural and ethnic i
Page 33 and 34: 16 Dark matterCleaver, Mariarosa Da
Page 35 and 36: 18 Dark matterGraphic designer and
Page 37 and 38: 20 Dark matterof enterprise culture
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Page 47 and 48: 30 Dark matterthough intentional no
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Page 53 and 54: 36 Dark matternarratives form “on
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Page 63 and 64: 2The Grin of the ArchiveHaunting im
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Page 69 and 70: 52 Dark matterHowever, it was the s
Page 71 and 72: 54 Dark matterMadame Binh Graphics
Page 73 and 74: 56 Dark matterfirst time. In an imp
Page 75 and 76: 58 Dark matterMaterial in the PAD/D
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Page 83 and 84: 66 Dark matterA photocopied collage
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74 Dark matterprojects were not onl
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76 Dark matterestate deals, conditi
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78 Dark matter“Oasis” where hig
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80 Dark matterof real estate develo
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82 Dark matterAppropriating museum
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84 Dark mattersubversive intent of
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86 Dark matternomadic artist ethnog
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88 Dark matterbroadcast their polit
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90 Dark matteroffering the text of
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92 Dark matterHomosexuals, he write
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4Temporary ServicesBecause you can
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96 Dark matterTwitter, Flickr, Word
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98 Dark matter“Roots” is one of
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100 Dark matterpractice such dark m
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102 Dark matterconceptual artist Do
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104 Dark matterdemands of flexible
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106 Dark matterquestionnaires that
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108 Dark matteradvertisements, popu
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110 Dark matterthe border or across
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112 Dark mattervisit to the webpage
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114 Dark matterBlack molasses is sp
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5Glut, Overproduction, Redundancy!W
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118 Dark matterOverproductionThat t
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120 Dark matteris to say that even
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122 Dark matterin the institutional
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124 Dark matterdesire is enhanced t
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126 Dark matterhours of work), and
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128 Dark matterAWC v. APTOne exampl
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130 Dark matterAs just noted, one o
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132 Dark matterStill from the video
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134 Dark matterWithout losing site
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136 Dark mattertook place across th
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138 Dark mattermonopoly on future a
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140 Dark matterStills from Evidence
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142 Dark matterto US intervention i
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144 Dark matterMembers of the inter
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146 Dark matterexplain why, despite
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148 Dark matterlonger attaches itse
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150 Dark matterrevenge of the exclu
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7MockstitutionsThe Cartographers Gu
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154 Dark matterby highways, onramps
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156 Dark matterof wonders veracity
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158 Dark matterbecame more pronounc
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160 Dark matterpair of cheeky, subu
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162 Dark matterappears in the index
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164 Dark matter• META-COMMERCIALS
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166 Dark matterrole of service pers
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168 Dark mattergroups to commandeer
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170 Dark matterWhat has been born o
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172 Dark matterThis relationship is
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174 Dark matterKlutsis, and Malevic
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176 Dark matterCampbaltimore. Their
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178 Dark mattergroup to full-blown
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180 Dark matterLearning Site’s
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182 Dark matterseminars. Once enoug
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184 Dark matteris to use the cultur
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8Conclusions: Nights of AmateursIn
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188 Dark matterkicks, an artist who
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NotesIntroduction1. Walter Benjamin
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notes 19116 Beaver Street, Lize Mog
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notes 19316. Allegedly, the popular
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notes 195Julie Ault, ed., Alternati
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notes 19724. An index to the PAD/D
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notes 199Art set within a broader c
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notes 20122. See Katharyne Mitchell
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notes 203Chapter 41. Yomango, “10
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notes 205Czechoslovak Revolution Co
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notes 20711. Marcelo Expósito, “
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notes 20947. Barbara Adam and Joost
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notes 21121. Lovink and Garcia, “
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notes 21311. See the Central Office
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notes 21543. Incarceration rates fo
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notes 217of educational seminars at
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ibliography 219Dan Peterman: 7 Dead
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ibliography 221Rosler, Martha and B
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appendix 223• Do you have a desig
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index 225Artists Meeting for Cultur
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index 227Center for Land Use Interp
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index 229Duncan, Carol, 6, 11, 56,
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index 231Haacke, Hans, 17, 42, 53,
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index 233flexible labor, productivi
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index 235new economy (Clinton), 38,
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index 237Puerto Rican activism and
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index 239army of unemployed or semi
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