Since the so-called dematerialization of currencies and art practices in
the late 1960s and early 1970, we have witnessed a move into what Joshua
Simon calls an economy of neomaterialism. With this, several shifts have
occurred: the focus of labor has moved from production to consumption,
the commodity has become the historical subject, and symbols now behave
like materials.
Neomaterialism explores the meaning of the world of commodities, and
reintroduces various notions of dialectical materialism into the
conversation on the subjectivity and vitalism of things. Here, Simon
advocates for the unreadymade, sentimental value, and the promise of the
dividual as a means for a vocabulary in this new economy of meaning.
Reflecting on general intellect as labor and the subjugation of an
overqualified generation to the neofeudal order of debt finance--with a
particular focus on dispossession and rent economy, post-appropriation
display strategies and negation, the barricade and capital's
technocratic fascisms--Neomaterialism merges traditions of epic
communism with the communism that is already here.
