Lecture 3. Marxism and Design Activism.

Lecture 3 – Marxism and Design Activism

Aims.

-       To introduce a critical definition of ideology

-       To introduce some of the basic principles of Marxist philosophy

-       To explain the extent to which the media constitutes us as subjects.

-       To introduce ‘ culture jamming’ and the idea of design activism

‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways the point however is to change it.’ Marx, K (1845) ‘Theses On Feuerbach’

Marxism is : was both a political manifesto which outlined what Marx saw as a better way of organising a society, Communists.

What is Capitalism?

-       Control of the means of production in private hands

-       A market where labour power is bought and sold

-       Production of commodities for sale

-       Use of money as a means of exchange

-       Competition / Meritocracy

Communist Evolution

-  Primitive Communism: as seen in cooperative tribal societies.

-  Slave Society: develops when the tribe becomes a

      city-state. Birth of aristocracy.

-  Feudalism: aristocracy becomes the ruling class. Merchants develop into capitalists.

-  Capitalism: capitalists are the ruling class, who create and employ the real working classes.

-  Socialism: (“Dictatorship of Proletariat"): workers gain class consciousness, overthrow the capitalists and take control over the state.

-  Communism: a classless and stateless society.

This is a competition that’s put upon us since we were young, to be better than our peers and to excel more.

Marx’s Concept of base /superstructure

Base             

Forces of production          -         materials, tools, workers, skills, etc.

             

Relations of production      -         employer/employee, class, master/slave, etc

                                                                                       

Superstructure

social institutions             -           legal, political, cultural

forms of consciousness  -            ideology *

Everything  - law, culture, art, education, and philosophy can be traced back to issues of class gender politics, racial politics.

When hunter Gather were thriving there were no single relationships and the women were in dominant  because every one had sex with every body, only women knew who their children were.

‘In the social production of their life men enter into definite, necessary relations, that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary it is their social being that determines their consciousness.

At a certain stage in their development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production..…From forms of development of the productive forces, these relations turn into their fetters.

With the change in economic foundation the whole immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic, in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.’

The state – but a committee for managing the common affairs f of the whole bourgeoisie (Marx & Engels (1848) ‘Communist maifesto’

Instruments of the state ideology and physical coercion

The Bourgeoisie

The Proletariat

Religion in a Marxist reading can be the ultimate form of mental control, because it states that if you poor an live a moral life you will be rewarded in heaven.

Ideology

-  System of ideas or beliefs (eg beliefs of a political party)

-  Masking, distortion, or selection of ideas, to reinforce power             relations, through creation of 'false consciousness'

Religion and things alike create a false consciousness; we don’t understand our relationship to society.

[The ruling class has] to represent its interest as the common interest of all the members of society, ... to give its ideas the form of universality, and represent them as the only rational, universally valid ones.

Karl Marx, (1846) The German Ideology,

The ones in control must create these false common interests to make the society believe that its what they want.

Art as ideology, art has always been ideology, it isn’t about one persons free expression.

-       Classical art, the only people who could do art would have been high class rich people.

-       Women weren’t allowed to be artists

-       Only kings and queens could buy art, so it was them dictating what was painted

-       It reflects the ways a ruling class thinks.

Althusser, (1970) ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’

SOCIETY = ECONOMIC, POLITICAL & IDEOLOGICAL

Ideology is a practice through which men and women ‘live’ their relations to real conditions of existence.

Ideology offers false, but seemingly true resolutions to social imbalance

Ideology becomes a mechanism in which we live our lives, it offers reasons for why we are in our situation.

-       A means of production

-       Disseminates the views of the ruling class (dominant hegemonic)

-       Media creates a false consciousness

-       The individual is produced by nature; the subject by culture. (Fiske, 1992)

-       The constitution of the subject

-       Interpellation (Althusser)

All of the media outlets are owned by 8 superior forces,  which in turn means the control everything we think.

Rupert Murdoch boasts how he has the power to control elections, historically the SUN was a torrie paper but it turned to back labour due to government funding.

Daily star – working class people

The Times – higher class

Even in classes we are fed what to read etc.

1. System of ideas or beliefs (eg beliefs of a political party)

2. Masking, distortion, or selection of ideas, to reinforce power relations, through creation of 'false consciousness'

[The ruling class is] compelled ... to represent its interests as the common interest of all members of society ... to give its ideas the form of universality, and represent them as the only rational, universally valid ones.

Karl Marx, The German Ideology, 1846.

Saying women don’t need to do anything but shag their way to success.

Commodity fetishism – A fetish is something that gets in the way of an act – e.g. sexual fetish.

-       The assets of the worlds top three billionaires are greater than those of the poorest 600 million on the planet

-       More than a third of the worlds population (2.8 billion)live on less than two dollars a day

-       1.2 billion live on less than one dollar a day

-       In 2002 34.6 million Americans lived below the official poverty line (8.5 million of those had jobs!) Black American Poverty double that of whites

-       Per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa =$490

-       Per capita subsidy for European cows = $913

Since 1989 all communists countries died and we live in the age of no appearance.