#6 - Mattie Colquhoun (xenogothic) - From Capitalist Realism to Acid Communism & Solarpunk

Mattie Colquhoun (pronounced kuh-hoon), known online as Xenogothic, is a writer and photographer from Hull, UK.

They are best known for continuing the intellectual and cultural legacy of the late Mark Fisher, one of the most influential contemporary cultural theorists and political philosophers, and Mattie’s former teacher at Goldsmiths London in 2017.

Since Fisher’s passing, Mattie has edited his Post-Capitalist Desire lectures, contributed to various translation projects, and written numerous contextual and introductory essays on his work. 

Native to the blogosphere, Mattie has since published several books. Their latest, Narcissus in Bloom (2023), offers an alternative reading of the selfie, in which they argue that what’s often dismissed as narcissism is, in fact, a symptom of deeper political discontent and a yearning for (self-)transformation.

With Mattie, we dive into Fisher’s vision, particularly his seminal book Capitalist Realism, where he diagnosed the exhaustion and imaginative limits of late stage capitalism, and Acid Communism, his unfinished project that sought to imagine how collective joy, desire, and alternative ways of being might form the basis of a new political horizon.

[00:00:58] Pseudonysms and Subversive Aesthetics

[00:07:16] Step 1 - Diagnose the System (Capitalist Realism)

[00:08:18] The Unimaginativeness in Culture & Politics

[00:10:53] "Capitalist Realism" Memetic Engine

[00:11:35] Change Starts with Critique

[00:14:05] Communism as Umbrella Term for all Alternatives

[00:15:47] Generational takes on Signification of Communism

[00:18:41] Post-Soviet Affects Regarding the Term "Communism"

[00:19:52] What Alternatives in Acid Communicsm ?

[00:21:52] Hauntology

[00:30:37] Accelerationism & enshittification

[00:33:31] Different takes on accelerationism

[00:42:02] Importance of political anomalies

[00:50:16]  Visibilise or Dissolve One's Identity?

[00:53:07] Surveillance Impact on the Self

[01:01:05] Queerness is More than Sex and Gender

[01:01:40] (De)Territorializing the Family

[01:08:58] Lesbian Utopian Commune

[01:10:39] Global Crises as Portals To Other Ways of Living

[01:13:35] Alternatives Are Available to All to Learn From