THE
PUBLIC
SCHOOL
PHILADELPHIA

X != P is short for the assumption I'd like to question in this class proposal.

X is exchange.
P is product or production.

My personal assumption is that the process of exchange is not a process of production. However, if this is so, do we not produce exchanges..?

These kind of questions came to my mind after listening to Kojin Karatani on http://www.youtube.com/user/IndraLevy where he pointed that Marx, in Das Kapital, did mention that in a sense production is negated by the "modes of exchange". This little mentioned fact is, in my view, interesting in itself because it questions the traditional left's insistence over control and access to the "modes of production", a view that filtered through the ages in various forms and finds its latest one in open source production.

Lets have a look at how today's fetishes work, both personal, cultural and these that kind of sit in between. Example possible fetishes, open source, choice, the thought "I do not like it, but have to do it", and an entirely personal one - the colour blue.
The Nazi reference is, I think, relevant in a rather personal meaning which I'd like to expand here for a line or two, in hope to both clarify it and explain the kind of "fetish" that is proposed. One of the most streaking lines I ever heard, since childhood, is "I am only doing my job". This is a line of excuse, its a line that tells me the person uttering it is using "its only my job", to feel fine about whatever it is they do. This is streaking because it is widely used, and that the same line was used by people who made the holocaust possible to happen. Zizek, with some possible justification in my mind, refers to that in psychological terms, as what allows the perpetrator to feel good about themselves. e.g. I can feel good, that I am a good human being despite whatever it is I am doing - because it is my job, it's just a job, nothing personal.
Yes, I agree with that kind of assessment that places the fetish as that which takes the heat for ones deeds - good or bad. However, I think it will be interesting to explore this as an artistic process that underlines any kind of psychological functionalities. In this sense, the fetish is no longer a Lacanian "other", but how we exchange, the personal and cultural "currency".
Show me your fetish and I'll show you main...