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Introduction

Introduction Introduction Walter Benjamin positions his Angel of History along a trajectory from which it contemplates the mounting pile of debris sloughed off by “progress,” a form of wreckage that asks to be interpreted as a spiraling series of technological advances, turned into waste by their own obsolescence. Threaded through his writings on new media such as photography, and through his encounter with Surrealism, Benjamin found a liberating potential within the experience of the obsolescent, or, as he called it, the “outmoded”—liberating because it offers a point of view outside the totalizing ambitions of each new technological order. As October approached its 100th issue, one editorial reflex was potentially more morose than triumphant, contemplating the possible obsolescence of any critical project at the present time. Postmodernism, we are told, is obsolete, a message emanating from every reactionary corner of the art world, not to open up new avenues of work and thought, but in order to return us to politics as usual and to a pluralism that has been de rigueur since modernism was in fact declared obsolete. Critical media that this journal has been dedicated to theorizing and historicizing—once new media like cinema and photography—have been simultaneously declared http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png October MIT Press

Introduction

October , Volume Spring 2002 (100) – Apr 1, 2002

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Publisher
MIT Press
Copyright
© 2002 October Magazine, Ltd. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ISSN
0162-2870
eISSN
1536-013X
DOI
10.1162/016228702320218394
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Introduction Walter Benjamin positions his Angel of History along a trajectory from which it contemplates the mounting pile of debris sloughed off by “progress,” a form of wreckage that asks to be interpreted as a spiraling series of technological advances, turned into waste by their own obsolescence. Threaded through his writings on new media such as photography, and through his encounter with Surrealism, Benjamin found a liberating potential within the experience of the obsolescent, or, as he called it, the “outmoded”—liberating because it offers a point of view outside the totalizing ambitions of each new technological order. As October approached its 100th issue, one editorial reflex was potentially more morose than triumphant, contemplating the possible obsolescence of any critical project at the present time. Postmodernism, we are told, is obsolete, a message emanating from every reactionary corner of the art world, not to open up new avenues of work and thought, but in order to return us to politics as usual and to a pluralism that has been de rigueur since modernism was in fact declared obsolete. Critical media that this journal has been dedicated to theorizing and historicizing—once new media like cinema and photography—have been simultaneously declared

Journal

OctoberMIT Press

Published: Apr 1, 2002

There are no references for this article.