Radical Technologies | Introduction —— The 51st Anniversary of 1968, Rethinking the Order

Poster Design©Zhizhi Liu

In 1968, millions of people strived for their rights all over the world. The anti-war movement became a vehicle that united people’s appeals against capitalism, imperialism, racism, and bureaucracy. The year 1968 became the resonating moment that disconcerted the global capitalist order for good. Also in 1968, images of the Vietnam War, transmitted through the satellites, appeared on the television screens in every American household. Marked by these images, the Beat Generation disappeared from their social roles to make their stands against any authorities. The Cold War military and space race stimulated the popular imaginations of possible social ends. Street movements inspired new urban control technologies and spatial organization methods. Situationists expanded resistance along the spatial dimension through art practices. Cybernetics blurred the boundary between humans, animals, and machines. The development of environmental control technologies enabled the formation of many radical architectural associations. Architecture became a medium of critical thinking, which motored the transformation of architecture as a discipline. In the second half of the 20th century, media technologies profoundly reshaped the order of the world. However, resistance at its best could only make the gigantic exchange machine more resilient. The reshuffled capitalism order today marks the tragic reconciliation between the 68-generation and their oedipus youth. 50 years later, consumerism, domesticates radical languages from the past and uses phrases like “resistance” or “emancipation” to elaborate their selling strategies. Anti-culture resistance ironically becomes a footnote of commodity fetishism. PILLS, together with The Paper and One Way Street, launches a special issue under the title of “Radical Technologies.” The issue invites submissions to reexamine the technological revolutions launched 50 years ago that disconcerted the late capitalist order, and reshaped the world today.