COMMUNICATION: Lex Brown vs. Space Capital - by Evan Moritz - The Buffalo ...
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COMMUNICATION: Lex Brown vs. Space Capital by Evan Moritz
COMMUNICATION:
Lex Brown vs.
Space Capital
by Evan Moritz
There is a well-worn story about the future tiny. Yet, the video is neither a meditation on
that goes something like this: as humanity the possibilities and foibles of this future, nor
reaches a crisis, technology comes to the res- a straight up-and-down critique of pro-space
cue. As technology moves forward, it is bound billionaires. Instead, Brown opens up an im-
to push “mankind” to the stars. What’s more, portant methodology for the creation and
as this happens, new machines will remedy criticism of the future, one where comedy and
the social ills apparent today. This story is clowning practice unite performance and SF.
expressed science fictionally in the Ameri- Communication is a comedic full-court press
can expansionist parable that is Star Trek, on the futures foreclosed by SpaceX, Blue Or-
where space is a “final frontier” mirroring the igin, and Virgin Galactic.
American West.1 However, Star Trek and oth-
er popular science fiction (SF) works are not These futures are walled, locked, and guard-
the only places these stories find traction. The ed, and the keys are in the pockets of pow-
world’s richest people are attempting to enact erful capitalists. Most are white; they are
this narrative. Billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon overwhelmingly men; and the majority are
Musk, and Richard Branson aim to convince American citizens. Such figures now collab-
the public that new technologies — ones that orate with governments to secure the future,
will save the planet from climate change, rein- harness historical SF to augment its value, and
vigorate the human spirit, and open new mar- sell the results as a commodity. When Musk
kets — will emerge from space exploration describes his desire for the Tesla Cybertruck
and particularly the colonization of the Moon to “be like a really futuristic-like cyberpunk,
and Mars. ‘Blade Runner’ pickup truck,” he conjures the
SF of the past to sell the future in the pres-
In Communication (2021), Lex Brown explores ent.2 Likewise, the United States Space Force
the intricate connections of these specula- logo bears a striking resemblance to the Unit-
tive, SF-informed bids for a new manifest des- ed Federation of Planets emblem from Star
2
Lex Brown, Communication (still), 2021. Digital video, 30 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Deli Gallery.
Trek. Bezos formed his aerospace manufac- Nor is the instrumentation of SF limited to
turing company, Blue Origin, after watching the recent space race or Silicon Valley. Per-
October Sky with SF author Neal Stephenson, formance theorist Scott Magelssen describes
who then served initially as its sole employee. the initial role of the American astronaut as
3
However, the harnessing of SF imagery and “almost exclusively performative.” He fulfilled
ideas to foreclose the future and mitigate the “if not the actual job of flying spaceships into
risk to these capitalists’ investments is not orbit and eventually the moon, the vital nar-
limited to outer space. rative and propagandistic function of stag-
ing the American story of the United States’s
Musk’s and Bezos’s SF-inflected companies prowess in this final frontier.”5 Courtesy of the
emerged from a Silicon Valley milieu rife with United States Navy Mark IV pressure suit, de-
big tech concerns engaged in the develop- signed by Russell Colley and later modified
ment of “cyberspace,” a concept popularized by NASA as a spacesuit for the first Mercu-
in fiction by SF author William Gibson.4 Build- ry astronauts, “the astronaut would look the
ing on Gibson’s ideas, Stephenson’s 1992 nov- part of a ‘cyborg,’ a term that first appeared
el Snow Crash evinces the ways SF authors in print in the May 22, 1960, issue of The New
co-create the geographies of cyberspace. It York Times, describing the new view of the
mainstreamed the use of the Sanskrit word space man as ‘Man-Machine’—‘human-and-
“avatar,” already in use in video games as ear- then-some.’”6 SF authors, whether wittingly,
ly as 1979, to describe a digitized proxy for as in Stephenson’s case with Blue Origin, or
the user. That Stephenson is now working as unwittingly, as with Gibson, co-create these
“chief futurist” for the augmented reality com- technological developments for the explo-
pany Magic Leap reveals another attempt by ration of cyberspace and outer space.7 Fur-
the author to realize imagined SF projects in a thermore, today’s pro-space capitalists take
corporate world. advantage of the notion of “cognition,” which
seminal SF theorist Darko Suvin describes
3as a literary mechanism that “focuses on the actually does. While we don’t receive a defin-
variable and future-bearing elements from itive answer, we are given some interesting
the empirical environment”.8 However, where glimpses of their practices. At the beginning,
these billionaires deploy Suvin’s notion of Marie mentions that she has an insurance
cognition in ways that are performative, trac- policy against cancellation — presumably
ing paths for the recirculation and expansion against being “cancelled” on social media.
of capital, Brown’s use of comedy in Commu- However, this means there are certain things
nication turns the video into a site where SF she cannot say to people, especially those
and performance can enter into more revolu- with whom she doesn’t entirely agree. At one
tionary modes of engagement with a future point, Marie notes, “I can’t get cancelled . . . .
open to broader, unknowable visions. this emotional labor is not subsidized by po-
tential futures.” Omnesia’s executive, Aspen,
In this work, Brown plays a myriad of ridicu- later references the “potential futures” ca-
lous and absurd characters. They are over- pable of subsidizing present emotional labor
the-top but all, in their own way, spot-on. For and protecting against cancellation when she
instance, there is B. Marbels: a film producer screams in desperation, “We need to know
turned corporate subterfuge guru, reminis- what’s going to happen before it happens so
cent of Dustin Hoffman’s character Stanley that we can make sure that it happens.” This
Motss from the 1997 film Wag the Dog, who presents a fascinating future of capitalist ex-
can alter reality by crafting plot holes. Brown’s ploitation and expansion. By understanding
Aspen is a marketing-oriented executive driv- potential futures and making them happen,
en by quarterly reports. Her partner, Jordie, Omnesia turns events to come into something
is always live-streaming while talking; at a resembling futures contracts: agreements to
few points, the executive stops to reply to his buy or sell a piece of equity at a future date
subscribers. Marie is the anxious community at an established price regardless of where
member at the mercy of Omnesia, the corpo- the market will be at that point. Through in-
ration Aspen and Jordie run. In addition, there surance and behavioral contracts, Omnesia
are two key nonhuman characters: Sylvie and secures the events of the future in much the
Lucida. Sylvie functions as a far more ad- way such economic tools secure the price of
vanced and sinister send-up of Apple’s well- a commodity.
known virtual assistant, Siri. Sylvie works to
figure out how to displace community mem- These aspects of Omnesia lead Aspen and
bers like Marie from their homes in order to Jordie to the conclusion that they need to col-
build a neighborhood intended for no one, onize Mars. If they can ensure a future where
the apotheosis of gentrification and capital Mars colonization will happen, they can safely
expansion. Lucida is the “little voice” inside invest in it. Aspen explains, “You know how
Marie. While easily drowned out, she provides much capital it takes to defy the laws of grav-
a hefty counter to Sylvie’s code-based voice ity?” To which Jordie marvels, “There’s no
of displacement and expansion when Marie people there, or air. It’s like the perfect chal-
listens to her. lenge.” However, B. Marbels retorts, “And why
is that your fundamental relationship with the
The corporate logic of Omnesia — its name ground? Hm? Good old reliable.” These ex-
fusing Sylvie’s omniscience and the total am- changes happen quickly, one after another,
nesia of its employees and customers — ne- and exemplify Communication’s use of per-
cessitates steering the future. Throughout the formance, SF, and comedy. As Aspen tries to
video, B. Marbels asks what it is that Omnesia set the future on a singular track, the desper-
4Lex Brown, Communication (stills), 2021. Digital video, 30 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Deli Gallery.
ation in her and Jordie’s voices contrasts with Communication’s houses and landscapes are
B. Marbels’s calm questioning. The clown-like two-dimensional silhouettes against a blue
characters and the humorous dialogue sup- cyclorama backdrop. Brown even plays with
ports a rich criticism that functions quite dif- the scenery by attaching its components to
ferently from analytic or journalistic varieties. the theatre’s fly system and jetting them out
This comedy and clowning provide a coun- and in at seemingly random intervals — add-
terweight to the rehearsals and SF displays ing a punning literalization to her send-up.
staged by performers like Musk, Branson, and At the end of the work, the camera turns to
Bezos to try to secure the future.9 The humor face the empty auditorium, and Brown briefly
of Communication’s script and the extremi- drops character in a kind of Verfremdungsef-
ty of its scenario make the absurdity of such fekt: a technique of making something famil-
ill-conceived space colonizing efforts and iar or everyday feel strange, distant, or even
their social implications immediately sensory, alien used by Marxist dramaturgs and film-
a kind of haptic theory-making. makers throughout the twentieth century.13
Brecht argued that this distancing sought to
Indeed, Brown has spoken about the different “free socially-conditioned phenomena from
roles clowning technique plays in live perfor- that stamp of familiarity which protects them
mance and theatre, arguing, “In theater you against our grasp today.”14 Today’s billionaire
play to the audience, and in clown you play rocket men use theatre and performance to
with the audience.”10 This performative mode do the inverse of what Brecht suggests: they
differs from the more representational, the- obscure the socially-conditioned phenomena
atrical displays of pro-space billionaires who foundational to their race to space, and they
play to their audience in order to persuade attempt to make this future seem familiar and
them of their colonizing future. Here, we might inevitable. They even try to conceal the arti-
recall China Miéville’s assertion that persua- fice on which they so often stand, attempting
sion in SF “is a function of (textual) charis- to realize the “willing suspension of disbelief
matic authority.”11 I argue that not only these for the moment” that was the goal of turn-of-
executives but also Brown remove the par- the-century realist theatres.15 Brecht consid-
enthetical “textual” and allow the problem of ered this to be “bourgeois theatre,” which will
persuasion to explode onto the stage, screen, “always aim at smoothing over contradictions,
and in the performance of everyday life. But at creating false harmony, at idealization.”16
Brown plays with the audience, eliciting
laughter in Aspen and Jordie’s most desper- However, Brown brings about her own take
ate moments and finding flexibility and play on a Brechtian estrangement of everyday life
between the real and the fantastical. Brown’s through the clown who plays with not only
world is decidedly not the “realistic” brand of the audience but also the very idea of the-
SF peddled by the Silicon leaders; it is play- atre itself. The entire theatrical conceit has an
ful, visually rich (to the point of overload), and air of a protracted joke, where the theatre is
even draws ideas from Brechtian notions of only necessary as the basis for its send-up. By
estrangement in theatre.12 clowning the executives and their notion of
the future and theatre of persuasion, Commu-
Brown films the scenes of the community nication provides an instantly apprehensible
members affected by Omnesia in a vacated SF performance that critiques the SF perfor-
theatre space, a setting that perhaps recalls mance of those in power. Brown plays with
the Steve Jobs Theater, which hosts product not only the audience but also theatre, video,
launches on Apple’s new “spaceship” campus. SF, capital, and those who mold all of these
6into a necessary future. Endnotes
1 In a March 11, 1964, initial draft of a pitch for
Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry explicitly characterized
At the end of the video, when Marie lets Lu- the show as “a ‘Wagon Train’ concept,” alluding to the
cida — the little voice of the people — finally popular television Western Wagon Train, which aired
from 1957 to 1965. Gene Roddenberry, “Star Trek,” http://
speak through her, she hints that there is no leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Star_Trek/1_Original_Series/
necessary future, no simple cause and effect Star_Trek_Pitch.pdf.
2 Quoted on Recode Decode, “Elon Musk,” Novem-
that makes the colonization of the solar sys-
ber 5, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/11/2/18053428/
tem inevitable. Lucida speaks of symbiosis recode-decode-full-podcast-transcript-elon-musk-tesla-
with everything, of boundaries rather than spacex-boring-company-kara-swisher.
3 Tim Fernholz, Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff
borders. These actions are an antipode to Bezos, and the New Space Race (New York: Houghton Mifflin
those Sylvie notes as beyond her reach: “a re- Harcourt, 2018), 69.
4 “March 17, 1948: William Gibson, Father of
turn to flat Earth or absolute racial superiority
Cyberspace,” WIRED, March 16, 2009, https://www.wired.
are acts of storytelling that are at the frontier com/2009/03/march-17-1948-william-gibson-father-
of my cognition.” Racial superiority and the of-cyberspace-2/. While Gibson is widely credited with
elaborating the idea of cyberspace in his various novels
restratified society of a flat Earth are as be- and short stories, there exists a long line of SF literature,
yond artificial intelligence as the strategies to going as far back as 1933, that describes virtual realities.
combat them: symbiosis, community, and de- 5 Scott Magelssen, Performing Flight: From
Barnstormers to Space Tourism (Ann Arbor: University of
stratification. These are human-made prob- Michigan Press, 2020), 73.
lems that need human (and animal, plant, 6 Magelssen, Performing Flight, 83.
7 In his afterword for the current Penguin edition
etc.) solutions. Furthermore, Lucida offers an of Neuromancer, “Some Dark Holler,” SF author Jack
important caution to those who would resist Womack asks “What if the act of writing it down, in fact,
the linear logic of big tech: “The reorganiza- brought it about?”.
8 Darko Suvin, Metamorphoses of Science Fiction:
tion will not come from a broken people who On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre (New Haven:
only know how to keep breaking, place your Yale University Press, 1979), 7.
9 The recent trend of corporations sending their
attention on mending.” While there is still a lot
CEOs to space — especially Richard Branson’s pre-filmed
to unpack in these closing lines of Communi- bike ride to the launch pad — often features crafted
cation, they point to an alternative future, one moments of theatricality shameless in their transparency.
Stephen Colbert had to “debunk” Branson’s claim that he
that is not predictable but massively distrib- took a photo of The Late Show host into space. The Late
uted, where stratified borders are dissolved in Show with Stephen Colbert, “‘I’m Not Into Coups’ Claims
Our Fascist Former President,” July 15, 2021, https://you-
favor of more personal boundaries and power
tu.be/H6EbDCxotdg.
comes from the radical symbiosis of fractured 10 Lex Brown, interview with the author, March
and traumatized communities focused on 2020.
11 China Miéville, “Cognition as Ideology: A Dia-
healing rather than being led by the perfor- lectic of SF Theory,” in Red Planets: Marxism and Science
mative “charismatic authority” of the richest Fiction, eds. Mark Bould and China Miéville (London:
SF fans. By breaking up the easy narratives of Pluto Press, 2009), 238, emphasis in original.
12 For more on the German playwright Ber-
human progress through space exploration, tolt Brecht’s theory of theatre, see his “A Short Orga-
Brown makes this well-worn SF trope seem num for the Theatre,” http://tenstakonsthall.se/up-
loads/139-Brecht_A_Short_Organum_for_the_Theatre.
strange and unfamiliar, an odd curiosity of the pdf.
super-rich. She even makes it seem indisput- 13 See the films of Laura Mulvey, Jean-Luc God-
ably ridiculous that such people would want dard, and the theatre of Brecht himself.
14 Brecht, “A Short Organum,” 8.
to do such things. By clowning these would- 15 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria
be charismatic authorities, Brown shows that (Project Gutenberg, 2004), chap. 14, https://www.guten-
berg.org/files/6081/6081-h/6081-h.htm.
they are, themselves, clowns, dithering with
16 Brecht, “A Short Organum,” 17.
the Moon and Mars while a tragedy burns un-
der their rockets.
7Published by The Buffalo Institute for
Contemporary Art on the occasion
of the exhibition Lex Brown: Defense
Mechanisms, July 23–October 9, 2021.
The exhibition series Humor as a Tool
is supported by Art Services Iniative of
Western New York.
30d Essex Street
Buffalo, NY 14213
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