Aug 272 min read

Mattin: "Self-Abolition: Noise, Alienation & Freedom"

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞-𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞-𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐮𝐦

𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧: "𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐍𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐞, 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦"

𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟐, 𝐚𝐭 𝟏𝟎𝐚𝐦 𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜

𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84884620575

Precarious material conditions, the mental health crisis, and ongoing wars make it evident that the liberal conception of subjectivity has no future. Can a different conception of subjectivity emerge from the generalized sense of enclosure and alienation? To develop an emancipatory conception of subjectivity, we must recognize noise and alienation as constitutive elements of freedom and subjectivity, as they enable us to understand opaque forms of determination that we have yet to fully comprehend.

"Freedom has historically been understood as the capacity for self-determination, but what does self-determination mean when we don't fully understand what we are or what the 'self' is? Noise introduces humility to our cognitive and agential capacities, and acknowledging it means embracing uncertainty and openness in our self-understanding.

As Inigo Wilkins points out, noise emerges from the establishment of a statistical form of social power in Western modernity—a violent, biopolitical system of exclusionary governance that relies on categorization, measurement, and centralized administrative control. This system is sustained by informatics and the speculative accumulation of profit. While noise was once seen as a disruptive force to these forms of control, today, tech corporations enable the construction of technical systems that are resilient to noise, aligning with social techniques that emphasize exclusion and the minimization or elimination of threats to power.

We need to reclaim and repurpose that noise. As AA Cavia suggests, we must seize the means of complexity."

Alienation, traditionally seen as the antithesis of freedom in both Marxist and existential frameworks, is intensified by AI, leading to heightened frustration and exasperation. While capitalist modes of production and social organization inherently produce alienation, this alienation might also be turned against capitalism itself. In other words, alienation can be both a symptom of capitalism and a tool for its critique, as it reveals the dissonances and contradictions inherent in capitalist social relations—what I have previously termed 'social dissonance.'

However, it is impossible to return to any previous conception of subjectivity. Therefore, we must alienate ourselves from capitalist alienation, redefining freedom as the self-abolition of capitalist subjectivity."

Readings:

Ray Brassier, Likeness of The Unlike: Likeness of the Unlike: The Affinity of Freedom and Fatality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Pz-27TYEU&t=2717s

Cécile Malaspina & Mattin

It is easier to imagine the end of the world than an alternative to the liberal individual

Malaspina, Cécile (2023). From the Mental State of Noise to the New Frontiers of Cognition. Angelaki 28 (3):4-15.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0969725X.2023.2216538

Inigo Wilkins, The Topos of Noise

https://www.foreignobjekt.com/post/inigo-wilkins-phantastic-sound-and-the-topos-of-noise

NRU (Noise Research Union)

https://n-r-u.xyz/diagramsPorto.html

https://n-r-u.xyz/diagramsOTO.html