Cybernetic Culture Research Unit
The Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU) was an experimental
Overview
The CCRU's work is characterized by loose, abstract theoretical writing combining elements of cyberpunk and Gothic horror with critical theory, esotericism, numerology and demonology, which often interplay in their deployment of occult systems and surreal narratives.[4] One of the CCRU's predominant ideas is hyperstition, which Nick Land referred to as "the experimental (techno-)science of self-fulfilling prophecies" where by means of esoteric cybernetic principles, certain ideas and beliefs that are initially incomprehensible (akin to superstitions) can covertly circulate through reality and establish cultural feedback loops that then drastically meld society, which they also referred to in total as "cultural production".[5] The CCRU's esoteric numerological cybernetic system for comprehending hyperstition, the Numogram, often appears in their writings alongside its circulatory zones and their respective demons.[4]
In addition to drawing inspiration from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus, to which references can be found in the CCRU's writings, the collective drew inspiration from writers including H. P. Lovecraft, William Gibson, J. G. Ballard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Octavia Butler, William S. Burroughs, Carl Jung and various other sources related to critical theory, science fiction, anthropology and nanotechnology.[4]
History
1993–1996
Theorist and researcher
The connections made leading up to the formation of the CCRU and during its tenure eventually lead to the Virtual Futures conferences. The conferences, organised from 1994–96, were initially founded by Joan Broadhurst, Dan O’Hara, Otto Imken, Eric Cassidy, and postgraduate students under the aegis of the Warwick Centre for Research in Philosophy and Literature.[7][8][9]
Stephen Metcalf was a central player in CCRU's creation. His essay "Autogeddon" is included in the 1998 Virtual Futures book published by Routledge, and in 1996, Metcalf translated, edited and published a collection of texts by Friedrich Nietzsche, Hammer of the Gods: Apocalyptic Texts for the Criminally Insane, that reflected and influenced how Nietzsche was being read by those who formed the CCRU at the time.
1997–2003
The CCRU drastically took on new forms and became increasingly experimental under the direction of Land; it was not a sanctioned academic project.
Land's antisocial behavior, reliance on amphetamines, and increasingly experimental writing at this time led academics and contemporaries to distance themselves from him, until he eventually left his academic post.[11] As a consequence, the CCRU could no longer use space at, or claim affiliation with Warwick University. CCRU continued to operate from a flat in Leamington Spa up until its disestablishment in 2003.
Members and affiliates
Following the departure of Plant whereupon the University of Warwick began to deny any relationship to the group, some of the CCRU's members have had an ongoing subcultural impact.[13][14]
Those who were affiliated with the CCRU during and after its time as part of the University of Warwick Philosophy department include philosophers
Land and the CCRU collaborated frequently with the experimental art collective 0[rphan]d[rift>] (Maggie Roberts and Ranu Mukherjee),[17] notably on Syzygy, a month-long multidisciplinary residency at Beaconsfield Contemporary Art gallery in South London, 1999, and on 0[rphan]d[rift>]'s Cyberpositive (London: Cabinet, 1995), a set of texts which demonstrated CCRU's approaches.[18]
Legacy and controversy
Urbanomic and Time Spiral Press published a collection of texts by the CCRU entitled CCRU: Writings 1997-2003 in 2015, which garnered high reception and renewed interest in the collective's writings, mythology and overall approach to speculative fiction and philosophy.[19] None of the work is attributed, but largely appears to be written by Land or under his strong influence, and although it states in the collection that it is a complete collection, this does not appear to be accurate.
The role played by Land, Plant, and the CCRU in the development of the fringe philosophy
American electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never, who credited the CCRU's writings as an influence on his 2018 song "Black Snow" from his album Age Of,[29] initially received negative reception after acknowledging their influence. The artist later indicated that he was not interested in the alt-right transition that Land made, which happened after Land's involvement in the CCRU.[30]
Further reading
The doctoral theses of several CCRU members and associates, submitted to Warwick University in the late 1990s and early 2000s, are available online and provide another perspective on the research of the CCRU.
- Alien Theory: The Decline of Materialism in the Name of Matter by Ray Brassier[31]
- Capitalism's Transcendental Time Machine by Anna Greenspan[32]
- Flatline Constructs: Gothic Materialism and Cybernetic Theory-Fiction by Mark Fisher[33]
- Touch-Sensitive: Cybernetic Images and Replicant Bodies in the Post-Industrial Age by Suzanne Livingston[34]
- Turbulence: A Cartography of Postmodern Violence by Steve Goodman[35]
See also
References
- ^ "RENEGADE ACADEMIA: THE Cybernetic Culture Research Unit, 1999 - Simon Raynolds". energyflashbysimonreynolds.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
- ^ "Cybernetic Culture Research Unit - Monoskop". monoskop.org. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
- ^ Doyle, Rob. "Writing On Drugs by Sadie Plant (1999)". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
- ^ a b c Press, The MIT. "Writings 1997–2003 | The MIT Press". mitpress.mit.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
- ^ Carstens, Delphi; Land, Nick (2009). "Hyperstition: An Introduction: Delphi Carstens interviews Nick Land". Orphan Drift Archive. Archived from the original on 2020-12-08. Retrieved 2021-04-19.
- ^ Fisher, Mark (1 June 2011). "Nick Land: Mind Games". Dazed. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
- ^ Eric Cassidy, one of the organisers The Virtual Futures
- ^ Virtual Futures Twitter account, 11 November 2017, names these four organisers and states that the idea Ccru was involved is 'revisionist history'. This was retweeted by Joan Broadhurst
- ^ Simon Reynolds, "Renegade Academia", unpublished feature for Lingua Franca, 1999. Accessed 27 December 2014.
- ^ Dazed (2011-06-01). "Nick Land: Mind Games". Dazed. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
- ^ a b Beckett, Andy (11 May 2017). "Accelerationism: how a fringe philosophy predicted the future we live in". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
- ^ "Cybernetic culture research unit". Retrieved February 23, 2020.
- ^ a b Fisher, Mark "Nick Land: Mind Games." Dazed and Confused
- ^ Simon Reynolds, 'Renegade Aacdemia', unpublished feature for Lingua Franca, 1999. Accessed 27 December 2014.
- ^ Sandhu, Sukhdev (16 November 2015). "How dub master Kode9 became the hero of zero". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
- ^ Mackay, Robin (27 February 2013) "Nick Land: An Experiment in Inhumanism." Archived 2019-11-10 at the Wayback Machine Divus
- ^ "0rphan Drift Archive". www.orphandriftarchive.com.
- ^ "0rphan Drift :: Neo Future > CTM13 Berlin". www.orphandriftarchive.com.
- ^ Ccru: Writings 1997-2003. 6 May 2015. Retrieved September 13, 2015.
- ^ Robin Mackay and Armen Avanessian, 'Introduction' to #Accelerate: The Accelerationist Reader, (Falmouth: Urbanomic, 2014) pp.1-46
- ^ Williams, Alex; Srnicek, Nick (14 May 2013). "#ACCELERATE MANIFESTO for an Accelerationist Politics".
- ^ Nick Srnicek & Alex Williams, ‘#Accelerate: Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics,’ Dark Trajectories: Politics of the Outside, ed. Joshua Johnson (Hong Kong, NAME, 2013)
- ^ Nick Land, #Accelerate Archived 2015-09-29 at the Wayback Machine; Annotated #Accelerate (1, 2, 3); On #Accelerate (1, 2a, 2b, 2c), series of posts made on Urban Future 2.1 between 13 February and 11 March 2014.
- ^ Bacharach, Jacob (23 November 2016). "I Was a Teenage Nazi Wannabe". The New Republic.
- ^ Gray, Rosie (10 February 2017). "The Anti-Democracy Movement Influencing the Right". The Atlantic.
- ^ Blincoe, Nicholas (18 May 2017). "Nick Land: the Alt-writer". Prospect Magazine.
- ^ Goldhill, Olivia (18 June 2017). "The neo-fascist philosophy that underpins both the alt-right and Silicon Valley technophiles". Quartz.
- ^ Klein, Jessica (3 January 2019). "Here's the Dark Enlightenment Explainer You Never Wanted". Breaker Mag. Archived from the original on 29 September 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
- ^ "Oneohtrix Point Never's vision of a post-apocalyptic, AI-ruled future | Dazed". Dazed. 30 April 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
- ^ opn [@0PN] (April 26, 2018). "me - Lead voice" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Brassier, Ray (2001) 'Alien theory: the decline of materialism in the name of matter'
- ^ Greenspan, Anna (2000) 'Capitalism's transcendental time machine'
- ^ Fisher, Mark (1999) 'Flatline constructs: Gothic materialism and cybernetic theory-fiction' '[1]'
- ^ Livingston, Suzanne (1998) 'Touch-sensitive: cybernetic images and replicant bodies in the post-industrial age' '[2]'
- ^ Goodman, Steve (1999) 'Turbulence: a cartography of postmodern violence'