ROBOTIC and SYNTHETIC PERFORMANCE: Steps Toward a Culture of Liberation a Manifesto of the OmniCircus
XIX. 'REALISM' and ANIMATRONICS
To a large extent the meaning and syntax of artistic languages is context-driven. This can be illustrated by describing three differing modalities of several brands of 'descriptionist' (naturalism-based) visual art: the dreadfully misnamed "Socialist" Realism; the forms of realist mural art emanating from third world struggles for liberation; and the 'documentary' form of modern mass-media and film.
1. Socialist Realism, a misleading term if ever there was one, is the common Stalinist-influenced moniker for political art in certain developed countries. It evolved its status as the official petty-bourgeois radical art form from the beginning of the 1930's when a Soviet hack named Zhadanov made 'Socialist Realism' the only legal art form in the Soviet Union. This movement should be called "Stalinist," or "bureaucratic" idealism, rather than socialist realism, since it played the same role vis-a-vis the reactionary bureaucratic caste that rules the Soviet Union that Norman Rockwell's Bourgeois Realism played toward the capitalists in this country, namely that of myth-mongering, rewriting history, and idealizing the class or caste in power. It is thus reactionary in its form and content, and it is a mockery of the progressive ideals that it supposedly espouses.
2. Third world realism, on the other hand, is often dynamically progressive, because a people who are oppressed along national and cultural lines need an art form that is an expression of their national and cultural identity. Nationalism among third world peoples can be progressive and often leads to revolutionary conclusions, but among the advanced industrial countries, it is necessarily reactionary and often leads to racism and jingoism. Realism among third world peoples is inherently progressive and leads to revolutionary art, while in advanced industrial countries, including the socialist ones, it is reactionary and expresses obsolete, 'provincial' and backward values.
3. Documentary is an art form tied inextricably to the social sciences, and as such, it is an appropriate form for examining the nature of social reality or exploring an economic, political or ideological question. Documentary can become a potent tool for social change. It can have the same relationship to sociology that Constructive art has to the design sciences, to be the most forward-looking manifestations of that science in its effort to reach out to people.
Each of these three forms of 'naturalistic' expression has much in common, yet they differ in their fundamental character and implications. The 'Entertainment Industry' transcends these muddy waters by concocting an avalanche of infantilized theme parks, television programs, movies and magazines, which express themselves in another form of 'naturalism' based on a cartoon caricature of reality; the ultimate vile, toothless fat and friendly suburban version of the 'big lie' of Adolph Hitler. Symbolized by Disney's so-called 'animatronics', the cartoon-culture of late capitalism, directed at adult working class people (for in truth, this world-view is targeting adults through their children, surely a diabolical form of child abuse if there ever was one), is the most pre-fabricated one-dimensional ham-fisted brain-sucking numbskulled narcoleptic fastfood mindcandy ever created on the surface of this planet. Utilizing all the magic, alchemy and appeal to authority of its historical predecessors in the realm of mechanical distractions, the Hollywood/Disney money-magalith has created a monumental legacy of foolishness, a veritable Everest of idiocy, which will go down, way down, two thumbs down in history as one of the lowest epochs of human culture.
When Disney first created his 'animatronic' Hall of Presidents, he was responding in his usual prescient and brilliant fashion to the developing sympathy and awareness of the modern working class towards robotics. He was trying to head it off into impotent channels, by referencing our 'father-figures' and bringing it all back home to typically goofy and patriotic American territory. After decades of effort, the infantile corporate culture mass-produced to the tune of many billions of dollars and force-fed to the working class from cradle to grave has still not succeeded in paralyzing us completely. Rock artists such as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead, and countless others, with a few guitars and microphones and the willingness to tell the truth about real people's lives, have had more influence on the soul of the American people than countless multi-million dollar movies and television onsloughts. But the war for hearts and minds goes on. Now let's bring out our heavy artillery! To the front lines, robot beggars and whores!
Why is it so hard to develop a militant working class culture? More importantly, perhaps, why do we have to at all? Won't a utopian, visionary art inspire a new world? To answer this we must examine what happens to the consciousness of a people enduring physical degradation and enslavement, as every working class does.
