Mandatory Passivity

LiveInYourHead

Thursday 27 February 2014 to Saturday 15 March 2014

LiveInYourHead
Exhibition space of the Geneva University of Art and Design
Rue du Beulet 4
1203 Genève
Wednesday - Saturday, from 2pm to 7pm

The title and theme of the exhibition refer to a prophetic passage written nearly forty years ago by Jean Baudrillard, predicting that late capitalism would in future be organized in terms of participation and play, rather than spectacle. This would lead to the formation of citizens and consumers who would not be more active or aware, but subject to a mandatory passivity:

‘The code's disjunction supplants the centralist injunction. Solicitation is substituted for the ultimatum. Mandatory passivity evolves into models constructed directly from the "active responses" of the subject, his or her implication, "ludic" participation, etc., and finally towards a total, environmental model made up of incessant spontaneous responses, joyful feedback, and irradiated contact. This is ... the great Festival of Participation, composed of myriad stimuli, miniaturized tests, infinitely divisible nodes of query and reply, magnetized by a few overarching models illuminated by the code. The culture of tactile communication is in fact burgeoning in the techno-lumino-kinetic space provided by this total, spatio-dynamic theatre.’

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Portrait de Jean Baudrillard
© Jean Baudrillard, DR