Discussions on the Use of a Situationist Scalpel

last updated: 31-jul-2005 at 13:10


Suggestions:
 Location of Discussions:
Etiquette:
Protocol:
Email Codes for Subject Lines:
The overall meta-discussion (discussions about the discussion groups (e.g., formation, archiving, scheduling, reading availabilities) shall use the Subject line code of "DISCUSSION" (all in upper case).

We shall have a specific thread for each focus, whether a single publication or a topic covering more than one reading. For instance:
SOTS == Society of the Spectacle
TRTBG == The Right To Be Greedy
REL == Revolution of Everyday Life
TBOP == The Book of Pleasures
We agree upon delineating major parts or sections:
SOTS-2 == Society of the Spectacle, part 2
TBOP-2 == The Book of Pleasures, part 2
We agree upon delineating theses or sub-sections:
SOTS-2-36 == Society of the Spectacle, part 2, thesis 36
TBOP-2-1 == The Book of Pleasures, part 2, section 1
Current or Evolving Discussion Threads:
Focus: Open Creation and Its Enemies with Originality and Magnitude (on the System of Isou) - Written by Asger Jorn.

  • Required readings
Text:
Open Creation and Its Enemies with Originality and Magnitude (on the System of Isou)
Published by Unpopular Books (Box 15 - 138 Kingsland High Street - London E8 2NS - Anglia - England U.K.) - 1994.
ISBN 1-871-593-20-4.
Web:
Open Creation and Its Enemies
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/open1.html

Originality and Magnitude
http://www.infopool.org.uk/6001.html
  • Facilitator: Christopher
  • Start Date: 1-august-2005
  • Email Code for Subject Line: OCAIE
  • Scheduled Readings (with sub-section codes):
  • 15-aug-2005: all of OCAIE text has been read
  • Scheduled Discussion Topics (with sub-section codes):
  • 17-aug-2005: (2-day allowance for query/posit process): discussion of all of the OCAIE text begins
  • 22-aug-2005: discussion of all of the OCAIE group ends (or does it?!)
  • End date: 23-aug-2005
  • Post-partum:
  • Facilitator archives material.
  • Facilitator leads brief discussion regarding use and under-use in the process.
  • Process improvemnent suggestions are synthesized into forthcoming groups.
  • Facilitator hereafter can be contacted regarding material handoff, follow-up, archive. etc.
Focus: A Declaration of the Rights of Human Beings: On the Sovereignty of Life as Surpassing the Rights of Man - Written by Raoul Vaneigem.

  • Required readings
Text:
A Declaration of the Rights of Human Beings: On the Sovereignty of Life as Surpassing the Rights of Man
Translated by Liz Heron.
Published by Pluto Press (London, England U.K.; Sterling, Virginia, U.S.A.) - 2003. ISBN 0-7453-2021-X (softbound) and 0-7453-2022-8 (hardbound) - $24.95 new.
Web:
A listing of the 58 articles from A Declaration...
http://home.teleport.com/%7Ebanalco/edocs/RightsOfHumanBeings-v1_0.pdf
  • Facilitator: Christopher
  • Start Date: 15-aug-2005
  • Email Code for Subject Line:  ADOTROHB
  • Scheduled Readings (with sub-section codes):
  • 22-aug-2005: ADOTROHB:I, ADOTROHB:II, ADOTROHB:III, ADOTROHB:IV
  • 27-aug-2005: ADOTROHB:V:1, ADOTROHB:V:2, ADOTROHB:V:3, ADOTROHB:V:4, ADOTROHB:V:5 
  • 1-sep-2005: ADOTROHB:V:6, ADOTROHB:V:7, ADOTROHB:V:8, ADOTROHB:V:9, ADOTROHB:V:10
  • 6-sep-2005: ADOTROHB:V:11, ADOTROHB:V:12, ADOTROHB:V:13, ADOTROHB:V:14, ADOTROHB:V:15
  • 11-sep-2005: ADOTROHB:V:16, ADOTROHB:V:17, ADOTROHB:V:18, ADOTROHB:V:19, ADOTROHB:V:20
  • 16-sep-2005: ADOTROHB:V:21, ADOTROHB:V:22, ADOTROHB:V:23, ADOTROHB:V:24, ADOTROHB:V:25
  • 21-sep-2005: ADOTROHB:V:26, ADOTROHB:V:27, ADOTROHB:V:28, ADOTROHB:V:29, ADOTROHB:V:30
  • 26-sep-2005: ADOTROHB:V:31, ADOTROHB:V:32, ADOTROHB:V:33, ADOTROHB:V:34, ADOTROHB:V:35
  • 1-oct-2005: ADOTROHB:V:36, ADOTROHB:V:37, ADOTROHB:V:38, ADOTROHB:V:39, ADOTROHB:V:40
  • 6-oct-2005: ADOTROHB:V:41, ADOTROHB:V:42, ADOTROHB:V:43, ADOTROHB:V:44, ADOTROHB:V:45
  • 11-oct-2005: ADOTROHB:V:46, ADOTROHB:V:47, ADOTROHB:V:48, ADOTROHB:V:49, ADOTROHB:V:50
  • 16-oct-2005: ADOTROHB:V:51, ADOTROHB:V:52, ADOTROHB:V:53, ADOTROHB:V:54, ADOTROHB:V:55
  • 21-oct-2005: ADOTROHB:V:56, ADOTROHB:V:57, ADOTROHB:V:58
  • Scheduled Discussion Topics (with sub-section codes):
  • Follows reading schedule with open discussion on all of its material (and relations to previously-read sections)
  • Please keep discussion of the group of readings to the 5-day period so we do not lag further and further behind but stay with the schedule. Think of it as speed-reading wherein the desire to dwell and savor must be held in check so that new fields of flowers may be encountered. Pursuing these extended discussions directly after the dissolution is recommended and the notes will be included - as best can be - by the facilitator.
  • End date: nine (9) weeks after it begins
  • Post-partum:
  • Facilitator archives material.
  • Facilitator leads brief discussion regarding use and under-use in the process.
  • Process improvemnent suggestions are synthesized into forthcoming groups.
  • Facilitator hereafter can be contacted regarding material handoff, follow-up, archive. etc.
Focus: Comments on the Society of the Spectacle - Written by Guy Debord.
  • Required readings:
Text:
Comments on the Society of the Spectacle
Translated from the French by Malcolm Imrie
Published by Verso (London), 1990
ISBN 0-86091-302-3.
Web:
Comments on the Society of the Spectacle
http://www.notbored.org/commentaires.html
  • Facilitator: kim paice
  • Start Date: TBA (soon)
  • Email Code for Subject Line:  COTSOTS
  • Scheduled Readings (with sub-section codes):
  • week 1: COTSOTS I, COTSOTS II, COTSOTS III, COTSOTS IV, COTSOTS V
  • week 2: COTSOTS VI, COTSOTS VII, COTSOTS VIII, COTSOTS IX
  • week 3: COTSOTS X, COTSOTS XI, COTSOTS XII, COTSOTS XIII
  • week 4: COTSOTS XIV, COTSOTS XV, COTSOTS XVI, COTSOTS XVII
  • week 5: COTSOTS XVIII, COTSOTS XIX, COTSOTS XX, COTSOTS XXI
  • week 6: COTSOTS XXII, COTSOTS XXIII, COTSOTS XXIV, COTSOTS XXV, COTSOTS XXVI
  • week 7: COTSOTS XXVII, COTSOTS XXVIII, COTSOTS XXIX
  • week 8: COTSOTS XXX, COTSOTS XXXI, COTSOTS XXXII, COTSOTS XXXIII
  • Scheduled Discussion Topics (with sub-section codes):
  • Follows reading schedule with open discussion on all of its material (and relations to previously-read sections)
  • Please keep discussion of the group of readings to the 5-day period so we do not lag further and further behind but stay with the schedule. Think of it as speed-reading wherein the desire to dwell and savor must be held in check so that new fields of flowers may be encountered. Pursuing these extended discussions directly after the dissolution is recommended and the notes will be included - as best can be - by the facilitator.
  • End date: eight (8) weeks after it begins
  • Post-partum:
  • Facilitator archives material.
  • Facilitator leads brief discussion regarding use and under-use in the process.
  • Process improvemnent suggestions are synthesized into forthcoming groups.
  • Facilitator hereafter can be contacted regarding material handoff, follow-up, archive. etc.
Focus: On Terrorism and the State: The Theory and Practice of Terrorism Divulged for the First Time - Written by Gianfranco Sanguinetti.

  • Required readings:
Text:
On Terrorism and the State: The Theory and Practice of Terrorism Divulged for the First Time
Published and distributed by B.M. CHRONOS (London WC1V 6XX) - 1982 - ISBN 0-9508380-0-4.
Web:
On Terrorism and the State: The Theory and Practice of Terrorism Divulged for the First Time
http://www.notbored.org/on-terrorism.html
  • Facilitator: Not Bored 
  • Start Date: TBA
  • Email Code for Subject Line: OTATS
  • Scheduled Readings (with sub-section codes):
  • TBA
  • Scheduled Discussion Topics (with sub-section codes):
  • TBA
  • End date: TBA
  • Post-partum:
  • Facilitator archives material.
  • Facilitator leads brief discussion regarding use and under-use in the process.
  • Process improvemnent suggestions are synthesized into forthcoming groups.
  • Facilitator hereafter can be contacted regarding material handoff, follow-up, archive. etc.
Focus: The Movement of the Free Spirit: General Considerations and Firsthand Testimony Concerning Some Brief Flowerings of Life in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Incidentally, Our Own Time  - Written by Raoul Vaneigem.
  • Required readings:
Text:
The Movement of the Free Spirit: General Considerations and Firsthand Testimony Concerning Some Brief Flowerings of Life in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Incidentally, Our Own Time
Translated by Randall Cherry and Ian Patterson.
Published by Zone Books (611 Broadway, Suite 608 - New York, NY 10012 USA). Distributed by the MIT Press (Cambridge, Massachusetts U.S.A.; London, England U.K.) - 1994.
ISBN 0-942299-70-1.
Web:
  • Facilitator: kim paice
  • Start Date: TBA (soon)
  • Email Code for Subject Line:  TMOTFS
  • Scheduled Readings (with sub-section codes):
  • TBA
  • Scheduled Discussion Topics (with sub-section codes):
  • TBA
  • End date: TBA
  • Post-partum:
  • Facilitator archives material.
  • Facilitator leads brief discussion regarding use and under-use in the process.
  • Process improvemnent suggestions are synthesized into forthcoming groups.
  • Facilitator hereafter can be contacted regarding material handoff, follow-up, archive. etc.
Focus: Snapshots and Footprints of Shadows: Reification and Alienation
  • Facilitator: Christopher
  • Start Date: 1-oct-2005 (estimating 4 months to complete and several to scan unavailable materials)
  • Email Code for Subject Line: REIF
  • Scheduled Readings (with sub-section codes):
  • VOE:TCOTFOTHD: The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic (45 pp) from Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939 - by George Bataille; edited by Allan Stoekl (1985)
  • TOF: Theses on Feuerbach - by Karl Marx (1845)
  • HACC:RATCOTP: Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat from History and Class Consciousness - by Georgs Lukacs (1923)
  • HACC:RATCOTP: Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat from History and Class Consciousness - by Georgs Lukacs (1923)
  • TRBCF: The Reality Behind Commodity Fetishism - by Mario Wenning
  • TFB:TACOHP: Towards a Critique of Hegel's Philosophy (45 pp) from The Fiery Book: Selected Writings of Ludwig Feuerbach - by Zawar Hanti (1972)
  • TEOR: The Essence of Religion (75 pp) - by Ludwig Feuerbach
  • MBAKM:BPATMD: Bakunin's Philosophy and the Marxian Dialectic (28 pp) from Michael Bakunin & Karl Marx - by K.J. Kenafick (1948)
  • EOMTOV:MTOCF: Marx's Theory of Commodity Fetishism (51 pp) from Essays on Marx's Theory of Value - by Isaak Illich Rubin
  • AMCOMICS:PI: Philosophical Introduction (70 pp) from Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society- by Bertell Ollman (1971/1972/1973)
  • AMCOMICS:TTOA: The Theory of Alienation (96 pp) from Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society- by Bertell Ollman (1971/1972/1973)
  • RTAOLC:TRRL: Total Reification: Reading Lukacs (8 pp) from Reification: The Anxiety of Late Capitalism - by Timothy Bewes (2002)
  • RTAOLC:TRRL: Inversion (74 pp) from Reification: The Anxiety of Late Capitalism - by Timothy Bewes (2002)
  • BPOMP:COAAIM: Concept of Alienation and Its Metamorphoses (18 pp) from Basic Problems of Marx's Philosophy - by Nathan Rotenstreich (1965)
  • MAT:TDOTBWM: The Discourse of Totality Before Western Marxism (60 pp) from Marxism & Totality - by Martin Jay (1984)
  • MAT:GLATOOTWMP: Georg Lukacs and the Origins of the Western Marxist Paradigm (48 pp) from Marxism & Totality - by Martin Jay (1984)
  • TPPOB:TWO: The World-Outlook (8 pp) from The Political Philosophy of Bakunin - by G.P. Maximoff (1953)
  • TPPOB:TWO: Idealism and Materialism (9 pp) from The Political Philosophy of Bakunin - by G.P. Maximoff (1953)
  • TPPOB:TWO: Ethics: Divine or Bourgeois Morality (9 pp) from The Political Philosophy of Bakunin - by G.P. Maximoff (1953)
  • TPPOB:TWO: Man: Animal and Human Nature (6 pp) from The Political Philosophy of Bakunin - by G.P. Maximoff (1953)
  • TPPOB:TWO: Mind and Will (7 pp) from The Political Philosophy of Bakunin - by G.P. Maximoff (1953)
  • FCAEOR:FCAI: False Consciousness and Ideology (39 pp) from False Consciousness: An Essay on Reification - by Joseph Gabel (1962/1975)
  • FCAEOR:IAD: Ideology and Dialectics from False Consciousness: An Essay on Reification - by Joseph Gabel (1962/1975)
  • FCAEOR:SSOIT: Schizophrenic Structure of Ideological Thought (32 pp) from False Consciousness: An Essay on Reification - by Joseph Gabel (1962/1975)
  • TSBON:MM: The "Self-Mediating Being of nature" (3 pp) from Marx's Theory of Alienation - by Istvan Meszaros (1970)
  • MTOA:MM: Monastic Materialism (4 pp) from Marx's Theory of Alienation - by Istvan Meszaros (1970)
  • BHATD:SAR: Speculation and Representation: The Masks of Philosophy and Its Religious Double (40 pp) from Beyond Hegel and the Dialectic: Speculation, Cult, and Comedy - by William Desmond (1992)
  • Scheduled Discussion Topics (with sub-section codes):
  • TBA
  • Follows reading schedule with open discussion on all of its material (and relations to previously-read sections)
  • Please keep discussion of the group of readings to the 5-day period so we do not lag further and further behind but stay with the schedule. Think of it as speed-reading wherein the desire to dwell and savor must be held in check so that new fields of flowers may be encountered. Pursuing these extended discussions directly after the dissolution is recommended and the notes will be included - as best can be - by the facilitator.
  • End date:
  • Post-partum:
  • Facilitator archives material.
  • Facilitator leads brief discussion regarding use and under-use in the process.
  • Process improvemnent suggestions are synthesized into forthcoming groups.
  • Facilitator hereafter can be contacted regarding material handoff, follow-up, archive. etc.