Antiuniversity Playshop "The Hidden Abode" (after Marx's Capital Vol. 1)

"The Hidden Abode" is a unique event loosely based on Marx's Capital Vol 1. Join us at SET Social for a theatrical experiment with Marx, sounds, and imagination. This playshop is neither a typical musical experience nor a typical exploration of Marx. It is a game that invites us to meditate on the nature of the capitalist system, explore allegorically how we withdraw from its enforced speed, and consider how we make social relations that balance the desire for exchange with the transformational experience of being together.

BRING YOUR OWN STUFF (REQUIRED!)

To participate in this event, please bring with you:

1 everyday essential item (can be anything)

& 1 small box (for example from a supermarket item– any size, cardboard or other material)

Bonus: bring an image representing what we will call a 'means of transformation'—something needed to make something you personally use or consume (for example connected to coffee, clothes or shampoo production—it could be factory machinery, labourers in a field or a clothesmaking workshop, infrastructure such as servers or electricity substations); or a thing you use directly (like a computer). Find pictures or draw it yourself. This is to decorate your box.

If you prefer to do your thinking in advance: think of 2 ideas of a luxury, each expressed in one word (any object, service, experience or activity that you consider a luxury).

Arrive from 2pm for a 2:30pm start.

MORE INFO

Marx's Capital Vol. 1 as a theatrical game

The three volumes of Marx's Capital offer a holistic picture of how our advanced industrial and post-industrial societies work: how they are unfair, tend towards crises, and marginalize important things—especially the environment, childcare, and other traditionally female-gendered labour. But while they offer helpful material for understanding our world, and for beginning to think about what sort of action could catalyse lasting positive change, they are long, complex and difficult to share with one another without a significant investment of time.

In this playshop we will enact a sort of theatrical outline of the capitalist system as it appears in Capital Volume 1—that is, focused on the moment of production, its pressures and its social relations. Participants will divide into three groups—the Productive Ones, the Careful Ones, and the Organic Ones—plus a manager and an assistant—to explore different ways we may already relate to this system. The playshop is a game that invites us to look for points of withdrawal and threads to pull on, beginning to weave alternative modes within the dominant structure.

This playshop draws on the amateurist musical practices of Pauline Oliveros, Cornelius Cardew, and John Cage. We may use our voices as in a choir, but the event is fully inclusive for those who prefer not to vocalize! Objects will be provided to create sound.

Facilitated by Steve Potter / Recreational Services

Host or Publisher steve gruzas potter/ Antiuniversity Festival