dance and die
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Dance and Die:
Obsolescence and Acceleration
Benjamin Noys
The contemporary moment is a moment of acceleration. This might
be taken as a typical piece of diagnosis, which wold re!ect on
what "artmt #osa has called the $totalitarian% dominance of social
acceleration &'()(: *+ #osa '()-. am concerned with something
rather di/erent. This is the de0elopment of new $accelerationist%
modes of thinking that attest to the power of acceleration as means
to probe forms of knowledge and technology that might be re1
prposed to generate a non1capitalist ftre. The contention is that
we are not accelerating, or not accelerating enogh. 2ired in
capitalist crisis we face the e3hastion of the topian promise of
acceleration that fed the a0ant1gardes of the twentieth centry,
from the talian 4trists to the British ndependent 5rop of the
)*6(s, and beyond. 4.T. 2arinetti proclaimed, in the 7rst manifesto
of 4trism, that $others who are yonger and stronger will throw
s in the wastebasket, like seless manscripts. 8 9e want it to
happen% &in #ainey et al '((*: 6-. Acceleration belonged to the
yong, to those who cold otpace their elders and render them
obsolescent. n or moment we witness the strggle to redeploy
acceleration, to rework or reengineer the a0ant1garde $passion for
)
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the real% &Badio '((;-, to retrn from the senility of capitalism in
crisis to the &7gral- yoth of rein0ention.
am sceptical of sch claims &Noys '()(: <=*+ Noys '()<-,
as will soon become e0ident. Nonetheless want to trace this
retrn of acceleration in the present moment as a symptomatic
e3pression of a desire to transcend a capitalism that appears at
once frantic and static. The seeming capitalist monopoly on
acceleration feeds the need to e3tract or isolate new forms of
acceleration that can be trned against capitalism. n particlar
want to attend to the aesthetics of accelerationism. 5ean 2oreno
&'()-, in a recent editorial for the art1jornal e-fux on
$accelerationist aesthetics%, arges that this aesthetics o/ers the
capacity for s to negotiate between $inno0ati0e cartographic
e3ercises% and $the dri0e to deliberately e3acerbate nihilistic
meltdowns.% t is an aesthetics of acceleration that promises the
capacity to e3plore and trace new forms of acceleration that can
n1lock the present moment. One of the ironies of sch claims is
that often the proponents of accelerationism retrn to the past. t is
dance msic that has formed one of the sites for this aesthetic
probing. The accelerati0e natre of the form, often registered in
increasing beats1per1minte &bpm-, makes dance msic a signatre
aesthetic model for recaptring a $yothfl% passion for
acceleration.
2y critical reconstrction e3amines three moments. The 7rst
is that of what we might call $classical accelerationism%. This refers
'
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to the work of Nick >and and his allies in the ?ybernetic ?ltre
#esearch ?entre &??#@- condcted dring the )**(s at the
@ni0ersity of 9arwick. >and ga0e a pro0ocati0e pnk form to
pre0ios argments for social acceleration as a means to pnctre
the limits of capitalism. The 7grati0e element wold be pro0ided
by the emergence of $ngle% or $drm and bass%, a genre of dance
msic de0eloped in Britain from so1called $#a0e% and which sed
fast breakbeats &)(1)C( bpm- &see Noys )**6-. The second
moment is a step back to the emergence of Detroit techno in the
early to mid1)*C(s and the solidi7cation of techno as a genre. This
self1conscios $Afro14trism% &shn '((- aimed at generating a
new aesthetics of acceleration that was e3plicitly post1indstrial.
4inally consider inter0entions by contemporary accelerationists
arond crrent forms of dance msic. "ere we see the tension that
persists in trning to the present moment to release forces of
acceleration.
The Inhuman Dance Floor
Nick >and and the ??#@ articlated $classical accelerationism% as
the most radical endorsement of capitalist time as a time of
acceleration, in the form of e3panding 0ale and the absorption of
all elements of life nder an inhman marketisation. This moment
emerged from )*;(s theoretical crrents, notably DeleEe and
5attari%s Anti-Oedipus &)*;'-, and in >and%s work it gained a kind
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of resonance and accelerati0e force that deliberately aimed at a
para1 or anti1academic energisation &#eynolds '()(-. 9hereas
DeleEe and 5attari stepped back from what they called
deterritorialisation &)*CC: )(-, riding the !3 and !ows nleashed
by capitalism, >and arged the need to go frther:
2achinic re0oltion mst therefore go in the opposite
direction to socialistic reglation+ pressing towards e0er
more ninhibited marketisation of the processes that are
tearing down the social 7eld, $still frther% with $the
mo0ement of the market, of decoding and
deterritorialisation% and $one can ne0er go far enogh in
the direction of deterritorialisation: yo ha0en%t seen
anything yet%. &>and '()-
4or DeleEe and 5attari $absolte deterritorialisation% remained
asymptotic F something to be con0erged on, bt ne0er reached. 4or
>and it had already been realised, bt only in the ftre F '()', in
fact. 9e shold at this point note that this realisation is, in the
langage of the ??#@, hyperstitional &??#@ )***-, which is to say
it is a performati0e 7ction. The then present moment of the )**(s
was being in7ltrated by cyber gerrillas from this realised absolte
deterritorialisation. 9e had traces of this ftre F drgs, sci17,
jngle, theory, biotech F that pre7gred the meltdown to come: $as
<
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if,% in >and%s words, $a tendril of tomorrow were brrowing back.%
&>and '()-
One of the key $tendrils of tomorrow% was the post1ra0e
speed1p of jngle and drm1and1bass &4isher '())-. This
intensi7cation of the accelerati0e elements of dance cltre
reslted in $impending hman e3tinction becomes accessible as a
dance !oor%, according to >and &'()-. Not $Dance or Die%, bt
$Dance and Die%. The accelerati0e force of jngle or drm and bass
instantiated the trace of or ftre inhman state. The tendency of
jngle tracks to sample sci17 7lms sch as The Terminator
&2etalheads, $Terminator% &)**'-- or Predator 2 &"yper on
3perience, $>ord of the Nll >ines &)**-- was read by >and and
the ??#@ as indicati0e of an emergent ftre in which the hman
wold be dissol0ed the hman into the !ows of deterritorialised
capitalism. ngle was a $street% ftrism, a poplar a0ant1garde,
that in its $dark% forms &e3treme basslines, eerie or ncanny
samples, and proplsi0e rsh- 7gred $e3tinction% throgh
e3hilaration.
The combination of dance msic with drgs rendered
possible a practical anti1hmanism F the disintegration of the ego
nder the forces and forms of drg and dance indced1states of
dissoltion. 4ar from the commnal dreams of certain factions of
ra0e cltre, with the promise of new Dionysian collecti0es, the
??#@ and >and prsed a stdiedly nightmarish integration of the
hman with the machinic and technological. nstead of some neo1
6
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primiti0ism, this was a neo1ftrism. This conter1mythology was
jst as mch another mythology, and largely ninterested in tracing
the political, social, and economic tensions of ra0e and post1ra0e
dance cltre &see Thornton )**6-. The aim was to dissol0e those
tensions in an endorsement of the inhman at the e3pense of any
political claiming of ra0e in the name of collecti0ity.
t is perhaps not srprising that sch a theoretical tendency
shold e3tingish itself. The logical otcome of sch a set of beliefs
was the disappearance of the hman, as not only did the !ows of
capitalism not reGire hmanity bt also that a state of absolte
deterritorialisation had already been achie0ed. This is a 0ariant of
2arinetti%s logic of obsolescence. nstead of the heroism of
2arinetti%s narrati0e, which reGires new yong $o0er1men%, in a
NietEschean 0ein, >and and the ??#@ wold be rendered obsolete
by the trn1o0er of capitalist speed. The only sbject left was this
inhman force of desire or the libidinal F identical with the $forces%
of capitalist prodction. >and and the ??#@ deliberately operated
as a 0anishing mediator between the signs of the ftre and, they
claimed, the realised ftre of acceleration.
Of corse that ftre did not arri0e. At the same time the
moment of jngle and drm and bass brned itself ot. After the
relati0e hegemony of this form post1ra0e dance cltre nderwent
frther fragmentations and retrns to more $stable% or con0entional
forms, sch as @H 5arage. This type of dance msic slowed down
to )( bpm with <I< beats and retrned to pre0ios dance msic,
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notably "ose, to craft a $solfl% sond. t was accompanied by a
retrn to an embrace of capitalist hedonism F champagne, smart
clothes, designer labels, and the more con0entional elements of
clb cltre. The irony, considering >and%s argments, was that
this cold be considered a mch more capitalist form than jngle.
The reply wold not dobt be that this was the ideology of capital
represented F the gentri7cation of the corrosi0e inhman force of
capital with the $hman face% of conspicos consmption.
The more painfl irony was that jngle and drm and bass
persisted as modes of nostalgia. t is consmed by the age grop
that was contemporary with it in the )**(s, in a similar mode to
0arios other pop1cltral nostalgic e0ents or gatherings. The Ds
and artists still tor bt the form, with some e3ceptions, largely
remains froEen in that )**(s moment. This process is not nsal
and familiar from the fate of many artistic a0ant1gardes, which
begin from wanting to destroy msems and end1p by being
collected by those msems. n the relati0ely more rapid trno0er
of pop cltre this process is itself accelerated. The di/iclty it
raises is, howe0er, for the attempt by >and and the ??#@ to in0est
in the aesthetic of acceleration tied to this moment. 9ith the ftre
not arri0ing in the form they desired the sbstittion is of nostalgia
for a ftre that did not happen.
Night Drive thru Babylon
Detroit techno emerged from that city in the early to mid1)*C(s. t
was a deliberately accelerati0e aesthetics, speeding bpm from the
;
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pre0ios forms of disco and hose and stripping1ot of the
hmanist resides that often dominated those forms F not least the
0oice. nstead of $solfl% singing, or samples, Detroit techno
tended to mechanised and repetiti0e sampling, or absenting the
0oice altogether. The singlarity of its aesthetic in0ention lay in this
welcoming of the $mechanisation%, or better $compterisation%, of
the aesthetic. This has ob0iosly been pre7gred by Hraftwerk%s
albms Man-Machine &)*;C- and Computer World &)*C)-, which
were hgely in!ential on Detroit techno &?nningham '()(: 6*-.
t mi3ed ropean in!ences, from electronic msic pioneers like
Hraftwerk, New Order, Depeche 2ode, and others, with the Detroit
fnk of Jarliament I 4nkadelic. The apotheosis of the form, at least
as regard it, is the track $t is what it is% &)*CC-, by #hythim is
#hythim%s &aka Derrick 2ay-. This was, as one semi1ironic
description went at the time, $dance msic with bleeps%. #etaining
fnk, the insistence of Detroit techno had the topian, if not kitsch,
elements of sci17 ftrism copled to the dystopian fragmentation
of the city1space &$Night Dri0e Thr Babylon%, as the track by 2odel
6(( had it-.
Detroit techno was a self1consciosly post14ordist and post1
indstrial msic. The 0ery coldness of techno and its eGi0ocal
embrace of deindstrialisation make it discomforting, if we
consider the contemporary fate of Detroit. t also set ot to $erase
the traces%, to se Brecht%s phrase, of the city%s msical heritage,
C
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notably 2otown. n an Atkins%s infamos words, the $originator%
of techno stated:
berry gordy bilt the motown sond on the same principle as the
con0eyor belt at the ford plant. today the atomobile plants se
robots and compters to make their cars and %m more interested
in fords robots than gordy%s msic. &in ?osgro0e )*CC-
Berry 5ordy, fonder of 2otown, had been an atomoti0e worker
and his label was fonded on 4ordist principles: a prodction line
sond with a range of interchangeable artists on the roster called
in to perform &?ohn )*;(: )))=)-. This is literally 0isible in the
2artha and the Kandellas promotional 7lm for the song $Nowhere
to #n% &)*6- which was made on the 4ord prodction1line in
)*6. This 0ery strange 7lm shows the grop dancing throgh
4ord%s paint shop and prodction line, being ogled or stdiosly
ignored by the, predominantly African1American, workers.
Detroit techno shifted to a post1indstrial sond and mode of
prodction, in0ol0ing indi0idal artists deploying technology,
notably samplers and drm machines+ as machines has replaced
workers in the factories so machines replaced artists in msic.
#ather than rejecting this, as cold be witnessed in the 0arios
forms of protest msic and $ble1collar% msic of the )*;(s &see
?owie '()(-, Detroit techno seemed to celebrate the replacement
of $0ariable capital% &i.e. hmans- by $constant capital% &i.e.
*
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machines- at 4ord. n this way it traced the mtating social space
of Detroit F from the $white !ight% following the )*; insrrection,
the de1indstrialisation that followed, and its own position in the
sbrban site of Belle0ille "igh, where Derrick 2ay, an Atkins,
and He0in Landerson met. The topia present in techno is the
dehmanised machinic1self integrated with a sci17 ftre. Hodwo
shn remarks $The cyborg fantasies of the Detroit techno
prodcers, sch as an Atkins and Derrick 2ay, were sed to both
alienate themsel0es from sonic identity and to feel at home in
alienation.% &'((: '*- The names of acts &$?ybotron%, $2odel 6((%,
$Dre3ciya%-, labels &$Transmat%, $#ed Jlanet%-, track titles &$No
@4Os%, $Lkynet%, $Apollo%, $Alpha ?entari%, $9a0eform'%-, and co0er
imagery, inde3 this sometimes kitsch and ironic $ftrism%.
This is not an nproblematic celebration. Derrick 2ay, the
leading 7gre of Detroit techno, known as $the inno0ator%, re!ected
in an inter0iew:
$factories are closing and people are drifting away% says
derrick, $the old indstrial detroit is falling apart, the
strctres ha0e collapsed. t%s the mrder capital of
america. si3 year olds carry gns and thosands of black
people ha0e stopped caring if they e0er work again. if yo
make msic in that en0ironment it can%t be straight
msic. in britain yo ha0e new order, well or msic is
the new disorder.% &in ?osgro0e )*CC-
)(
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n contrast to 2ay%s claim, what is striking is how ordered this
msic feels. The insistence and reglarity of techno is what seems
to link it to the reglarity of the machine. On the other hand,
howe0er, the registration of disorder sggests the con!ict at work
in the process of de1indstrialisation. Techno is not simply the
smooth registration of the passing into a $new order%, bt the
registration of collapsing strctres.
Again, a logic of obsolescence is at work. 9here techno
artists aimed to render 2otown obsolete, by embracing the
machine, they also operated as witnesses to the decline and crisis
of the order of 4ordism. The sci17 elements attested to the
displacement of labor and the attempt to render this as a topian
ftrism that cold escape the dystopia of Detroit. 2any of the
artists wold mo0e from Detroit to rope, to Berlin or Amsterdam,
to escape in their own 0ersion of !ight from the crisis of capitalist
labor. At the same time techno itself, as we saw with jngle and
drm and bass, wold be sbject to similar forces. The genre wold
de0elop in 0arios ways, bt remains today only one strand in the
fabric of electronic msic and a minor one at that. 9hat is also
striking is how inno0ati0e the original recordings sond compared
to later $de0elopments%. The generic solidi7cation of techno often
has eGi0ocal reslts, with a tendency to $freeEe% the form and so
sapping the 7gral $energy% released in the moment of its
inception. ?ertainly there ha0e been e3tremely in0enti0e post1
))
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Detroit moments, from Berlin%s Basic ?hannel, with their fsion of
db and techno, to 4rankfrt%s 2ille Jlatea3 label, with its
e3ploration of micro1techno of $clicks and cts%. Despite this a
certain formalisation seems to ha0e reslted in a more in0olted
and self1conscios form of techno, which lacks the tense dynamism
of that original moment &>ison '()': )(-.
This formalisation also acconts for the sense that techno
seems to lack the necessary energy to trace or inscribe a ftre.
The original Afro14trism of Detroit techno probed the tension of
a ftre in which labor might seem to be disappearing into the
streamlined and technological. The displacement of the city of
Detroit from this process, its contining abandonment by capital,
sggests the energy of the original moment of Detroit techno is one
of fear and an3iety at obsolescence, as well as the celebration of
acceleration. t is this recognition of the threat of obsolescence that
inscribes an aesthetic resistance to obsolescence.
Stuttering GIFs
?ontemporary accelerationism retrns to and modlates Nick
>and%s schema. 9hereas >and soght acceleration along the lines
of capitalism and so risked dissol0ing into capitalist !ows,
contemporary accelerationist thinking poses acceleration against
capitalism. n the in!ential $MAccelerate: 2anifesto for an
Accelerationist Jolitics% &'()-, Nick Lrnicek and Ale3 9illiams
arge that >and%s belief is in capitalist speed alone and so he
)'
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remains within $capitalist parameters% &'(): )<(-. 9hat is
reGired is not speed, which is merely $a simple brain1dead onrsh%,
bt acceleration as $an e3perimental process of disco0ery within a
ni0ersal space of possibility.% &Lrnicek and 9illiams '(): )<(-
The reason Lrnicek and 9illiams ha0e for objecting to >and is not
only the danger of simply remaining within capitalist parameters,
bt also that an inertial and crisis1ridden neoliberalism has
rescinded the dynamism of capitalism for the opaGe mechanisms
of speclati0e 7nance. 9e ha0e been robbed of or ftre.
The phenomenology of this second &or third- wa0e of
accelerationism is still pro0ided by dance msic. Once, in this story,
dance msic pro0ided an in0enti0e form of msical accelerationism.
n 2ark 4isher%s characterisation, $9hile twentieth1centry
e3perimental cltre was seiEed by a recombinatorial delirim,
which made it feel as if newness was in7nitely a0ailable, the
twenty17rst centry is oppressed by a crshing sense of 7nitde
and e3hastion.% &4isher '()a- This e3perimental cltre
ob0iosly incldes Detroit techno and jngle I drm and bass.
Limon #eynolds &'()- arged that in the )**(s there was a
$hardcore continm% in British #a0e cltre that traced an
e3perimental line of !ight from ra0e to jngle to drm and bass to
early grime. This is adopted by Ale3 9illiams &'()- to trace the
accelerati0e possibilities of dance msic. 9illiams, howe0er, also
adopts Limon #eynolds diagnosis of $#etromania% &#eynolds '())-,
which claims that contemporary msic is parasitic on the past and
)
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can only prodce pastiches of pre0ios genres. The tension lies in
the trncation of the hardcore continm into the limit of repetition
of past glories. Or moment is a nostalgia for a ftre that was
once promised F $Today is the Tomorrow yo were Jromised
esterday%, to se the title of a work by Kictor Brgin. #etromania
is, in Ale3 9illiams%s &'()- formlation, the $pop1cltral logic of
late neoliberalism.%
The di/iclty of that argment is that while >and has a
sbject of acceleration F capitalism F and an aesthetics F jngle and
drm and bass F contemporary accelerationism seems to lack both.
f the present moment is static, then where is accelerationism to
come from This is e0ident in 2ark 4isher%s recent discssion of
jke I footwork F a form of ?hicago $ghetto hose% at )66=)6 bpm,
with repetiti0e and often aggressi0e sampling &$4ck Dat%, being
one e3ample-. t wold seem that footwork contines the hardcore
continm and instantiates another acceleration, which wold
dispte the accelerationist characterisation of the present moment
as a moment of stasis. To resce this diagnosis, 4isher arges that
while jngle $was dark, bt also wet, 0iscos, and en0eloping,%
footwork is $strangely desiccated% &'()b-. This dessication
indicates a lack of proplsi0e mo0ement. The signatre metaphysic
of forces for accelerationism is a liGid one, in a strange echo of
>ce rigaray &)*C6: )(1))C-, bt withot her attention to gender.
n contrast, the illiGid form of footwork traces its e3pression of
and resistance to the present moment. 4isher e3plains that
)<
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footwork 7nds it image $in the bad in7nity of the animated 54, with
its stttering, frstrated temporality, its eerie sense of being caght
in a time1trap.% &4isher '()b- f jngle was predicti0e of
accelerati0e temporalities then footwork, according to 4isher, only
captres the impasses of the present moment. 9e s/er, in Ale3
9illiams%s Ballardian coinage, a $chronosick eeling% &'()+ italics
in original-, a disorder of or e3perience of time. @nable to accede
to the ftre, or e0en a faith or belief in the ftre, we instead can
only li0e ot the blockage of or present moment.
f footwork registers the impasse it seems that for 4isher the
techno msician Actress%s $soltion to this impasse has always been
to patch together something new from fragments of prematrely
discarded science and sonic 7ctions.% &4isher '()<- The Actress
albm hetto!ille maps, according to 4isher, a cartography of
e3clsion in probably appropriately paranoid style, considering the
present moment. This mapping, howe0er, also presents an act of
sonic reco0ery that is not simply an instance of $retromania% bt,
according to 4isher, the reco0ery of lost and encrypted energies. n
particlar, 4isher arges, the albm%s registration of the 0arios
pains of social and political e3clsion o/ers a means to e3ternalise
rage. The gestre is one that $reco0ers the ftre% &4isher '()<-.
Ale3 9illiams makes a similar gestre. f jngle embodied the
$>andian imaginary% of $apocalyptic paranoid ephoria% then today
we lack this $alienating temporality% &9illiams '()- The ftre is
now predicated, for 9illiams &'()-, on engagement with $the
)6
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forward1propelling energies embodied in the best of @H dance
msic, its posthman ingenity, alien sonic 0ocablary, and its
maniplation of a/ect and impersonal desire.% lea0e aside the
nationalism of this agenda, bt the central point remains the same.
9hile we e3ist in a moment of impasse it seems that some moments
of nostalgia or $retromania% might resce or reconstrct lost
energies. f there is no central aesthetic of acceleration, then we
ha0e to track, 7nd, or constrct the !eeting new moment of
$forward1propelling energies% that remain. 4or all the anti1nostalgic
0er0e of accelerationism it is forced into a di/erent form of
nostalgia. 9e ha0e to go back to the ftre, rescing moments of
aesthetic and political acceleration from their obliteration.
Obsolete Futures
?ontemporary accelerationism brings to an e3treme point of
tension the contradiction between the logic of acceleration and the
logic of obsolescence. 9hat has been made obsolete is
acceleration. This then reGires the retrn to pre0ios obsolete
moments of acceleration to generate the promised ftre that
might takes s beyond the miseries of the present moment and to
restart acceleration. n aesthetic terms we are forced into a choice:
not a choice between acceleration and retromania, bt a choice to
reacti0ate past moments of acceleration against the inertia of the
present. 9e ha0e to choose the correct retromania to o0ercome the
manically stttering present.
)
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This is not necessarily a problematic strategy per se. There
are many instances of political and aesthetic strategies that retrn
to the past to rework a possible ftre. The di/iclty is that the
terms in which contemporary accelerationism sets itself this task.
By rendering the present as stasis, and by !attening ot past
moments into neGi0ocal signs of acceleration, the tensions of
both are lost. n the 7rst case, of the present moment, we ha0e the
contradictions and tensions of the 0arios attempts to restart
capitalist prodction and accmlation, as well as the ne0en
crrent distribtion of the crisis. 4ailre to attend to this lea0es
contemporary accelerationism, with its dreams of re1organised
technological prodction, in dangeros pro3imity to certain
modernising ideologes of creati0e destrction. n aesthetic terms
we ha0e the lengthening history of the form, which gi0es a 7eld
into which to inter0ene, bt can also constrain as well as facilitate
new possibilities. Andrew >ison notes &'()': )(- that if we accept
the hardcore continm then contemporary dance msic forms
often introspecti0ely refer to and work in that continm. n the
case of contemporary accelerationism this lea0es it belie0ing in the
accelerati0e continm while strggling to note the necessity of
retrns to that continm that don%t simply aim to kick1start new
accelerations bt probe the limits of that paradigm.
n the second case, of the past, matters are also more
comple3 than simply in0oking past moments of acceleration. ha0e
noted that Detroit techno registers the tensions and contradictions
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of the post1indstrial within an endorsement of this acceleration.
nstead of celebrating the post1indstrial or streamlined
technological ftre we 7nd a playing with dread and an3iety. This
is also tre of >and and the ??#@%s se of jngle and drm and
bass. The deliberate playing with dread in jngle, in so1called $dark
jngle%, indicated the hman on the brink of obsolescence. 9hile
>and and the ??#@ cold parlay this into celebration of hman
e3tinction, it also indicated their own an3iety at willingly entering
into an e3tinction they also claimed was ine0itable. Dread remained
in the accession to the state of integrated machine and the promise
of hman obsolescence eGi0ocated on the abandonment of the
hman.
think these tensions and pressres are registered in the
work of 9illiams and 4isher. The di/iclty is that they do not seem
to be flly thoght throgh and so remain disconnected. Too often
we end with an opposition of acceleration and retromania rather
than the more comple3 mapping their probing of the limits of the
aesthetics of contemporary dance msic implies. They attend to
isses of nostalgia and the hanting of the present by moments of
acceleration, bt take these moments as gi0en rather than as
comple3 and eGi0ocal constrcts. 4isher%s mining of $hantology%
&'()a-, a term borrowed from Derrida &)**C-, sggests a more
comple3 temporality of retrn and repetition, rather than the !at
metaphor of the $hardcore continm%. t sggests a temporality of
what 4red called $deferred action% & "achtr#glichkeit- &>aplance
)C
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and Jontalis )*CC: )))=)<-. n this sitation a present trama
e3ists throgh reacti0ating a past trama, which only comes into
being in the deferred act of reacti0ation. Limilarly, rather than the
simple search for past moments of acceleration that e3ist in simple
prity we cold sggest a more comple3 process of reacti0ation
and reworking that interrpts the past and does not prodce a
$pre% new, bt a necessarily repetiti0e $new%.
That contemporary accelerationists attend to dance msic as
a test1bed for debates abot the ftre and acceleration is crcial,
that they !atten the tensions in their presentation is problematic.
9hat is reGired is frther attention to the logic of obsolescence,
both at the le0el of aesthetic form and as an e3pression of the
capitalist logic of the replacement of li0ing labor by dead labor,
with dead labor taking the form of machines and technology. n
the 7rst instance, of aesthetic form, an accelerati0e logic implies
the necessity for a $bilt1in% obsolescence, as a form e3hasts its
possibilities and, deliberately, tries to generate new paths beyond.
That sch paths often fall behind the initial inter0ention sggests
the di/iclty of sstaining sch forms of aesthetic acceleration. n
the second case, e0en in e3plicitly accelerationist aesthetics the
potential obsolescence of the form and of labor is not simply
welcomed, #ather there is always a registration of tension, e0en
within the spposed $smoothness% of the line of !ight.
Conclusion: Friction
)*
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nstead of the smooth presentation of acceleration, aesthetically or
politically, the registration of a sense of friction is crcial to
grasping the aesthetics of dance msic, and to grasping an
aesthetic and political analysis of the $stttering% of the present
moment or, for that matter, of the past and ftre. nstead of
metaphysical oppositions between wet &good- and dry &bad-,
accelerati0e &good- and static &bad-, the notion of friction implies
the tension that refses sch oppositions. t is also the fact that this
tension is reGired for any sense of acceleration. Acceleration to
the e3treme merges into noise. t is the tension or friction between
di/erent forms of acceleration, or between acceleration and
deceleration, that generates the felt sense of acceleration, rather
than simply speeding1p. This aesthetic necessity can, more
speclati0ely, be connected to the necessity to inclde friction that
disrpts a smooth acceleration or the liGidity that is the preferred
metaphysics of accelerationism.
This friction is often most e/ecti0e in being embedded within
a logic of acceleration. n the case of techno attempts to trn
towards an indstrial or dark techno, which wold highlight
feelings of horror or an3iety, are noticeably less e/ecti0e than the
original techno forms. A track like Blawan%s $9hy They "ide Their
Bodies nder 2y 5arage% &'()'-, is sitably npleasant, as its title
sample implies. The di/iclty here is that friction is broght
forward into a deliberately irritant fnction, and so the tension is
slackened. n the case of Detroit techno the friction emerged from
'(
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the tension of the topian and ftrist implses with the moments
of deceleration or an3iety. Of corse, as Andrew >ison &'()': )*-
notes, nostalgia is a risk in considering dance msic and another
way to refse to accede to a ftre. The contining
e3perimentation in these forms shold not be disa0owed in the
name of a perfect past.
>ison%s alternati0e of a $positi0e% new in forms of microhose
F a minimal and e3perimental form of techno F is sggesti0e, bt
risks o/ering another 0ersion of acceleration &>ison '()': )C-.
4riction is now dissol0ed, in >ison%s accont, to o0ercome the
danger of melancholia by a refsal to morn. nstead, want to
sggest that friction remains as the condition of acceleration and
the new. This might not be so $joyfl% or, for that matter, yothfl, it
sggests something of a $comple3 space of na0igation% that the 0ery
signi7er $accelerationism% forecloses. t also forces s to retrn to
moments of acceleration with an eye to the friction that makes
them possible.
')
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