BEECH, Art
Art and Postcapitalism : Aesthetic Labour, Automation and Value Production

The rise of the anti-work movement and current theories of 'fully automated luxury communism' have seen art topple from its privileged place within the left's political imaginary as the artist has been reconceived as a prototype of the precarious 24/7 worker.

Art and Postcapitalism argues that art remains essential for thinking about the intersection of labour, capitalism and postcapitalism not insofar as it merges work and pleasure but as an example of noncapitalist production. Revisiting debates about art and technology, Dave Beech challenges the aesthetics of labour in John Ruskin and William Morris and sheds light on the anti-work theory of Silvia Federici, Andr Gorz, Kathi Weeks and Maurizio Lazzarato, as well as the technological Cockayne of Srnicek and Williams and Paul Mason.

Formulating a critique of contemporary postcapitalism, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the real and imagined escape routes from capitalism.

Published by Pluto Press, 2020
Art Theory / Politics