Strange Circulations

Anne S. Anagnost

Lisa Ngo
07.07.2014

Strange Circulations

Historical context
Value coding of bodies
Financialization
Vampires and Capitalism
Film: Ermo
Commodity Fetishism
Case Study

http://blog.inceptsaves.com/blog/tag/blood-donation/

Historical Context

Chinas economic reform 1980s-1990s

Collectivization Market Socialism
Polarization of wealth and poverty
a wasteland in which young people can no longer imagine a future, while the city has
become the privileged site 221.

Commodification of blood

Biopolitics: Value coding of bodies

Shift in value
value coding becomes a measure of human capital produced through education and other
investments in the embodied capacities of the neoliberal subject, who is now responsible for
his or her own profits and losses 213.

Rural migrant laborers= low value

Financialization

BUT FIRST.

CLASS ACTIVITY!

Everyone flip a coin

Heads= 3 candy, Tails= 1 candy
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Best out of three wins 1 candy: loser must give up 1 candy
Repeat so that you have played with three different people
When finished, hide your candy so nobody can see them. Find
another partner that you havent paired with yet and take a seat next to
them.

CLASS ACTIVITY!

SPLIT OR STEAL
Make sure to keep candy hidden so your partner cannot guess how
many you have (In your hand or in your pocket).
On the count of 3, choose split or steal
Both choose split= the jackpot is split equally
Both choose steal= nobody gets the jackpot
One split, one steal= Stealer gets all the candy and splitter gets
nothing

CLASS ACTIVITY

Coin fliprepresented the distribution of wealth and how much that depends
on pure luck. Not everything is equally divided in a capitalist society.
Rock paper scissorsseries of events in life.
Split or stealfinancialization
Financialization refers to the assumption of risk in the hopes of an economic return on a
speculative investment (pg. 214)

Peasant vs. elite group. The less fortunate have an incentive to gain more
because the candy represent your value

Vampires and Capitalism

Blood sucking

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lords-of-l-a-pilot

Film: Ermo
Zhou Xiaowen, 1994

Depicts changes between city and countryside, collectivization and market

socialism
Ermo and the TV
Neoliberalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermo#mediaviewer/File:ErmoPoster.jpg

Commodity Fetishism

Biotechnology and pharmaceuticals

Underground blood collecting industry
Human albumindaily supplements

Case Study: Apple Products

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiyIcz7wUH0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Kn2BoD4FM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxOIebkmrqs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN_Y6yyqvS8

http://www.giantbomb.com/apple-inc/30105815/

Discussion

What kind of impression do you have about people who use apple products,
based on the commercials?
How does this relate to the example of Ermo?
How does biopolitics relate to popular culture?
What connections can you make with other readings/discussions from class?

Thank you!

Questions?