'make alias' plattform postfuhramt, orianenburgerstraße, berlin 4.10.98 - 3.01.99
 


*developed arrestment* - make alias.
(a pj for ten or six notes on the death of self-organising)
1) there are a lot of simple reasons for creating your own radio show, your own magazine or your own media-friendly socio-sphere: as profit is the only motive within the marketplace, products have to be easily consumable in order to be exchanged. furthermore, the trend within the media-industries seems to move towards monopolisation and fragmentation simultaneously. so, if you don't want to be indust-real, or you simply can't, you have to become a critical mass media substitue yourself - easily consumable, but avoid the profit. that's the rule of the different.
2) there are a few simple reasons for doing things collectively: technologically and economically speaking the collective is the only space where you can be marginally successful and successfully marginal. that means: in order to create marginal media products you have to invest the same amount of energy and intelligence as into a mainstream product. that's the rule of the mutual.
3) but the most fundamental reason for doing things in a collective, through your own channels, and the creation of something thereby seen as *marginal*, is the following: the blind spot of critique is the fact that it is always already within the system of raising attention, promoting products and helping them sell. being a collective you can be critical, sellable and buyable at the same time. it's just so easy. have you tried it yet? the system will care for you as long as the cultural logic believes in the importance of being marginal. that's the rule of welfare.
4) having understood this, you are a *self-marginalising* collective. attention economy will be on your side. you will get invitations, media coverage, visitors and curators. you will get yourself a theory background on self-organisation (which allows you to make yourselves even more plausible), an economical background of neoliberalism (which allows you to get the surplus value of expanding your network) and you will get yourself more hardware (which allows you to be aware of the efforts of multinationals). on the street they might call you a nomad, but that's just because they haven't heard of digital artisans yet. that's the rule of appropriation.
5) but caution. be aware that self-marginalisation has become a quality in itself. the self-marginalised seem to be of interest suddenly, just because they are marginal and they seem to enjoy it. ersatz. if you are marginal enough, you will become the ultimate new product - or at least an utterly clever art project. it just depends on the environment you are in or you push yourself into. the new interest in collectives who unconsciously or deliberately fail to adjust themselves to the logic of the market can only be dealt with if you are able to permanently drift along the horizon of attention - setting and rising. change your clothes and attitudes in time. live on impression-management. don't take unfashionable drugs, always look interested, never lose your smile. your bank account will do this for you. if you are in minus figures you can be sure you made it: supermarginalisation, the pure essence of your own system. the upper level. you hacked it. you are in. that's the rule of wisdom.
6) self-marginalising is about creating a product-based gestalt-difference between the poles of *something* and *nothing* that is interesting enough to be analysed by someone other than yourself. that should be no problem as long as you keep working on oscillations and modulations - thus processing transmissions into transformations, information into energy, cultural capital into art, communication into production, yourself into ourselves, eigensinn into collective dreaming. only then you can display your critiques as art, without your criteria being critizised. never organise yourself - it's just too much hassle. you will get delivered your self-marginalisation within the next nanos. pay per net, keep your mouth shut and use your fingertips as the antennas of your experience. work to make them believe. believe to make them work. in other words: make an alias. that's the rule of getting copied.