Anna Kornbluh, "Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism" (Verso, 2024)
Mar 17, 2024
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The podcast delves into the impact of late capitalism on art and culture, focusing on the rise of immediacy and anti-style. It explores the evolving landscape of content production, the intersection of psychoanalysis and Marxist theory, and alternative pathways in ideology. The discussion also covers the complexities of part-time labor in the novel 'Help Wanted'.
Immediacy in late capitalism favors instantaneity over complexity in cultural forms.
Abstraction in art reveals underlying complexities and mediations in industrial processes.
Economic transformations drive the push for unmediated self-expression in contemporary art forms.
Deep dives
Unveiling a Media Sea and the Specter of Late Capitalism
The podcast episode delves into Professor Anna Kormblue's recent book 'The Media Sea with a Style of Two Late Capitalism'. Kormblue explores the concept of immediacy and 'too late capitalism', highlighting the intolerance for art's depth and the societal demand for rapid expressivity. The discussion aims to understand the contemporary stylistic shifts in cultural production, moving beyond postmodern interpretations to grasp current economic and social contexts.
Exploring the Notion of Abstraction and Artistic Perspective
The conversation transitions to discussing the role of abstraction in art informed by Edward Burtinsky's aerial photography of industrial processes. Abstraction is viewed as a way to reveal underlying complexities and mediations in seemingly beautiful yet critical images. The critical aspects of art's abstraction and distancing are highlighted to challenge perceptions and provide alternative perspectives on industrial and environmental contexts.
Reflecting on Immediate Experience in a Neoliberal Society
The episode navigates the ideology of immediacy in cultural production, questioning the authenticity and immediacy presented in contemporary art forms like auto-fiction. The discussion challenges the premise of direct self-expression as an illusionary ideology and examines how economic transformations influence cultural practices, reinforcing an imperative towards instant and unmediated forms of art.
Embracing Critical Theory and Dialectical Thought
The conversation concludes with a reflection on the importance of abstraction in critical theory and philosophy, emphasizing the need to engage with big ideas and abstract thinking. The episode calls for a balance between abstraction and concreteness, advocating for a dialectical approach to understanding complex social and economic phenomena. Anna Kormblue encourages exploring diverse artistic expressions and theoretical frameworks to cultivate critical engagement and alternative perspectives.
Passionate Defense of Mediated Art and Alternate Paths in Cultural Production
Anna Kormblue passionately defends artists and writers who employ mediated styles and distance in their work, emphasizing the importance of abstraction in challenging dominant narratives. The conversation advocates for embracing abstraction to unravel underlying complexities and reveal new perspectives in cultural production. By valuing abstraction and critique, the episode encourages a deeper engagement with art and theory to navigate the complexities of contemporary society.
What is the status of art and culture in a world dominated by apps, algorithms, and influencers? Anna Kornbluh’s newest book Immediacy, Or the Style of Too Late Capitalism(Verso, 2023) analyzes a swath of cultural forms from auto-fiction to Netflix binges and immersive art installations. For Kornbluh, neoliberalism’s economic disintermediation manifests itself in a new dominant cultural style that renounces complex forms of representation, abstraction, and mediation in favor of instantaneity, memoir, and literalism. An ambitious and far-reaching intervention into politics and aesthetics, Immediacy is ultimately an impassioned defense of the power of art to reflect, critique, and transform the world.
Anna Kornbluh is Professor of English and a member of the United Faculty bargaining team at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where her research and teaching center on literature, film, and Marxist cultural theory. She is the author of The Order of Forms: Realism, Formalism, and Social Space, and Marxist Film Theory and Fight Club, and Realizing Capital.
David Maruzzella is a writer, editor, and translator specializing in philosophy and contemporary art currently based in Chicago. He received his PhD in philosophy from DePaul University.
