Jan 26, 7 pm

Eva Egermann, Hybrid Video Tracks, Beat Weber

Is the Economy the Reality of the World?

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Myths of Everyday Life, Technology and Art

Things are like they are; they are not eternal, but rather the historically congealed forms of social relationships. Myths are symbolically charged stories with questionable foundations. From Roland Barthes’ Mythologies, we know how contemporary myths function. They cloak themselves in apparent naturalness, thus appealing to so-called common sense and making phenomena seem to be irrevocable and self-evident. In their Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno and Horkheimer proposed in turn that science had become our central myth by generating blind obedience to higher powers, thus taking the place of religion. The economy—and with it, the economic sciences—dictates the daily lives of many people, but is the economy the reality of the world? Does it really benefit all of us when the economy is doing well? And what role does art play in the discourse of legitimation of technological and economic developments? These and similar questions will be presented for discussion on this evening.

Eva Egermann is an artist and editor at Malmoe magazine, and has been working at Manoa Free University since 2004. She conducted Internet research on art, economic criticism and technology for Kunstraum Lakeside.

Good genes, bad genes
Hybrid Video Tracks show the first episodes of their trash-theory-video-soap open about the world of biotechnology & the New Economy. “Patents and proteins change the world, life, humans. Our future lies in the hands of small, innovative companies like Bio-Feel. There’s a lot going on!” The soap, set in a fictional biotech start-up, tries to demystify the life sciences, which have been elevated to the leading science in contemporary public discourse, along with the affiliated “future industries.” The hope invested in biotechnologies of bringing an end to hunger, sickness and death, as well as the promise of neoliberalism, are made banal in a TV show, and shown to be much like the everyday television clichés of love, betrayal and reconciliation.

Hybrid Video Tracks is a five-year-old association of politically active film and video makers, performance artists, graphic designers, social scientists and Net activists from Berlin. (www.hybridvideotracks.org)

Myths of the economy
Beat Weber analyzes his favorite myth: “When the economy is doing well, we all benefit” from Mythen der Ökonomie. Anleitung zur geistigen Selbstverteidigung in Wirtschaftsfragen, published by BEIGEWUM (Advisory for Alternatives in Social, Economic and Environmental Politics). This book compiles a collection of the major economic myths, forming a compact reference work and argumentation plan for economy-critical debates. (www.beigewum.at)

Beat Weber is an economist and member of BEIGEWUM.