ON THE COMING COMMUNITY OF NETIZENS AND THE PRODUCTIVE FORCE OF ENVY

Envy is a projection, an intrapsychic relational affect with a social dimension: I lack what others have. As the production of scarcity is one of the defining prerequisites of capital and financial market dynamism, the processes of capitalist exploitation add fuel to my desire for what someone else possesses. “Texte zur Kunst” publisher Isabelle Graw and the cultural theorist Joseph Vogl discuss this primal scene of nascent resentment with a view to the sphere of art auctions as well as contemporary forms of online communication. The question of whether and how capitalist market dynamics can occupy, integrate, and commercialize artistic and emancipatory-activist practices is a constant concern in their conversation.