The Study of Consumption

There is no moral framework for production within capitalism. Nation states give priority to the production of nuclear missiles, chemical weapons, cluster bombs, police truncheons, tear gas, water cannon; feeding people and providing shelter, health services and education are secondary, or less. Even outside the arms industries there is plenty of immoral production; oil, builtContinue reading “The Study of Consumption”

Art Deco & Electro-Gothic

Before one can start any sort of study there must be a great obstacle course of diversions to navigate through. And so the real study of the Gothic met a temporary set back today by hitting the submerged rocks of Art Deco. My little ship contains a notebook, a pen, some pencils, a sketch bookContinue reading “Art Deco & Electro-Gothic”

Money, or the Distribution of Commodities (and the circulation of people)

It is unlikely that Westfield Shopping Centre was constructed as a living laboratory in which to study commodity fetishism. But as a laboratory for such a study it is a surprisingly good one. Here can be found the products of global production and also working-labour and consuming-labour from around the world. Where does this magneticContinue reading “Money, or the Distribution of Commodities (and the circulation of people)”

Adventures in capitalism, April 22

Or, more signals from the Society of the Spectacle. I’ve been reading ‘Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution’ by Richard Stites. This lead me once again to Boris Kagarlitsky’s The Thinking Reed. I thought I’d lost the book. There are fond memories of the time and place in which itContinue reading “Adventures in capitalism, April 22”

Ship, moon, navigation buoy, limpets

The liquid natural gas carrier, Gaslog Wales sailing from Dunkerque to Freeport, USA. Freeport is part of the infrastructure of shale gas production. I liked the presence in time and space of the moon, the sea, and limpets stuck to a concrete breakwater. But the endless pursuit of growth and profit and the immense wasteContinue reading “Ship, moon, navigation buoy, limpets”