Cinema, Studio, Tools

This is an article bases on a paper given at the Proto-Tools symposium held at Flat Time House in November 2013. The subject is the role of endless replicas in undermining market economies which base value on authorship and singularity of artworks. The strong presence for some films of scenes that parody the making of paintings (The Rebel, The Big Lebowski, Man of Flowers, The Horse's Mouth) suggests a cracked mirror movie image of validating practices in the institution of art. As ‘bad’ replicas of historically meritorious works these movie paintings enact the kind of critique that Auguste Blanqui imagines happening to his own political writing and activism in other worlds in other galaxies where the sheer number of planets and stars must ensure an endless replication of earthly ventures and vanities.