Publisher's Synopsis
In this issue of Mute we revisit the question of 'the human' in the age of biopolitics. What do philosophers, activists and 'pro-revolutionaries' have to say about homo sapiens in a world where monstrous claims on value demand populations be reduced to 'bare (hardworking) life'? From repression of messy 'species being' in revolutionary milieus, to the managerial dream of putting supposed species traits like language and empathy to work, the stakes of determining humanness, or resisting that determination, are high. Burdened by the Absence of Billions? Howard Slater reviews Frere Dupont's Species Being and Other Stories He's Not Beyond Good and Evil Nina Power asks if there's a point to Paolo Virno's unhappy human Monstrous Plans & Good Habitats Mark Crinson on suggestions that anti-colonisation struggles were also about architecture The Political Immunity of Discourse Erik Empson on Roberto Esposito's Bios Wishful Thinkers of the Calamity Bazaar John Barker says the time to attack the fantasy world of capitalist spin-doctors is now The Who and Whom of Liberty Taking Peter Linebaugh asks how it's possible to discuss liberty in the absence of equality Duck! You Regeneration Sucker Neil Gray watches David Panos and Anja Kirschner's Trail of the Spider and finds history repeating itself The Sleep of Realism Produces Monsters Andrew Fisher considers documentary maker Adam Curtis' claims to 'realism' and political neutrality Quarterly, critical and cheap, Mute is a concrete jumble of all that's still grunting in the inter-finessing hyper-barrios of culture, politics and technology 2.0. As capitalism yawns towards apocalypse we match it issue by issue with a sustained critique of everything existing, from eco prole-bashing and shanty chic to academic aut-onanist marxistry"
