Be Loud and Break Stuff! Obsolescence of Work and Leisure in the Era of Exuberance - 3-26

Abstract

The immediate future is presented in the collective imagination as a contest between two scenarios that would supposedly resolve the sociopolitical contra­dictions of our contemporary geist. On the one hand, the total automation and digitalization of work freed man from its burden, and thus starting a new era dedicated to leisure, arts and non-utilitarian sciences. On the other hand, we see the total reterritorialization of the affects, emotions, data, clicks, movements, thoughts or even dreams into the capitalist machine, that is, the absolute commodification of every aspect of our world.  The purpose of this article is to study a third term that would allow us to move towards the end of work and make it possible to think of different forms of leisure, breaking the binary work/leisure from within. We will address three main questions: in which mode of production do we find ourselves? Where does it come from? How do we break through? Using a genealogical-type mode of analysis, we will draw a cartography of the contemporary faces of capitalism (semiocapitalism, biocapitalism, burn-out society, etc.) through the work of various authors such as “Bifo” Berardi, Andrea Fumagalli or Byung-Chul Han. We will also turn our attention to the anthropological work of Piere Clastres, Marshall Sahlins as well as Bataille’s in order to find other economies that benefit the inner experience over capitalist profit. The aim of this article is to find contemporary examples that resonate with these “other economies”. So, the closing part of this article will be dedicated to one practice that could fit the task, the extreme music sub-genre of noise.