Resources
Below are links to readings, exercises, websites, films and audio bytes used to help shape the project.
Marx for Beginners - Marx on Alienation (project by high school student)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvp-tlLyoWo&feature=related
Marx for Beginners (Animation from the 70s?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoN7y3I9PfM&feature=related
Marxism - Cap is Whack! (Drawing animation project by high school student)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi4Edtyv8Xs&feature=related
Example Exercise:
Imagine Each Other: Economic Exchange (15 minutes)
Perform exercise with this direction in mind: Consider the different kinds of ECONOMIC EXCHANGES that you have in your life with individuals / objects.
In pairs, person A and B stand facing each other. They shake hands and freeze in that position. Then person A steps out of the pose, while B remains frozen, arm outstretched. Person A takes up a new position in relation to B, creating a new “image.” Now A freezes and B steps out, then B takes up another position, in relation to A. A and B continue to take turns in this way, improvising a series of possible relationships. The images that are created maybe be broadly representational, or expressions of abstract physicality. For example, A might respond to B standing with outstretched hand (the first image) by dropping to her knees in front of B as if she is being blessed. Certain images may suggest a context, but others might be more abstract.
Discussion of exercises (5 minutes)
Reflection on the exercises.
Ask for volunteers to demonstrate some “images” that were particularly interesting.
Consider the motion / action involved in creating the “images”
William Morris, Art & Socialism
http://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1884/as/as.htm
Example Exercise:
Memory and Emotion Exercise Round 1: LABOR/ACTION (15 minutes/15 minutes)
Each person must have by their side a co-pilot to whom they recount an event in their past (last week or twenty years ago) related to labor - must be something that made a profound impression on them, the memory of which provokes an emotion, even today. This could be something related to something that happened to you when you were working, or when a family member was working. For example, it could be the specific feeling you get when your mom gets home from work, or something that happened between yourself and a co-worker where you are employed, or a conversation about jobs with a teacher, etc.
Each person had a co-pilot; people’s experiences are not the same - as the co-pilot listens he is at the same time creating another image in his mind. The co-pilot should help the person to link the memory to the sensations, by asking lots of questions related to sensory details. The co-pilot is not a voyeur; s/he should use the exercise to try to create the same event in his own imagination, with the same details, the same emotion, the same sensations - which will be different but they will be your own. The co-pilots should switch roles after the first round.
Reflection of Exercises (10 minutes)
Reflection on the exercises. Ask for volunteers to recount some memories that were shared during the co-pilot exercise.
This American Life, “Story of Money”
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/423/the-invention-of-money
Greg Sholette, “Dark Matter”
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/314543/readings/Sholette.Lumpen.darkmatter.pdf
