Social Discipline

Latest Episodes:

SD45 w/Inigo Wilkins - Shitshow Theory and Entropic Modernity May 10, 2025

Show notes

Mattin and Miguel Prado sit down with friend of the pod and fellow NRU member Inigo Wilkins to dive into Shitshow Theory — a work-in-progress text by Mattin and Inigo — and Miguel’s own take on what he calls Entropic Modernity. Together we try to make sense of the neo-reactionary turn, Trump-era chaos, and the cultural meltdown we’re all living through. Theorising the shitshow, one glitch at a time.

SD44 w/Jeff Perkins "The Fluxus Cab Driver" Mar 12, 2025

Show notes

Social Discipline is incredibly excited to present the adventurous life of Jeff Perkins, a hidden gem of the American underground. This massive five-hour podcast, recorded in Berlin in June 2024, explores his fascinating journey—no one else can claim to have performed for Yoko Ono and John Cage, created legendary light shows with The Velvet Underground, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Germs, programmed the first Kenneth Anger retrospective in L.A., and encountered both Charles Manson and members of the satanic cult The Process. Jeff joined the military in the 1960s and was stationed in Tokyo, where he met Yoko Ono in the early ’60s. He began performing some of her pieces there and later in New York. Perkins also filmed Ono’s classic Film No. 4 (Bottoms), a Fluxus work. His first independent contribution to the Fluxfilm Anthology was Shout. He was at the heart of the 1960s New York avant-garde scene, surrounded by figures like La Monte Young, Jack Smith, and Angus MacLise. In January 1967, Perkins moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a programmer at Cinematheque 16. Influenced by Tony Conrad’s The Flicker, he began producing powerful light shows and collaborated with bands throughout the ’60s and ’70s—ranging from The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Grateful Dead to the punk scene with X and The Germs. He even refused to do a show for the Sex Pistols due to a disagreement with the promoter. Perkins was a close friend of Terry Jennings and, in fact, entrusted his archive to La Monte Young. While in L.A., he was neighbors with the artist James Turrell. In 1980, Perkins moved back to New York and started a loft project just a block away from Ground Zero, reminiscent of George Maciunas’ artist loft spaces. To finance it, he worked as a cab driver. He remained deeply connected to cinema, particularly through Anthology Film Archives, where he proposed a John Cassavetes retrospective to Jonas Mekas and later became a manager. In 1994, Nam June Paik—who coined the term “The Fluxus cab driver” for Perkins—invited him to perform at Anthology Film Archives in a homage to Yoko Ono. His performance, Butthead, was a great success. His legendary loft became a hub where one could easily encounter visiting filmmakers like Pedro Costa and Albert Serra. In 1989, Perkins organized a series of lectures at Anthology Film Archives with Henry Flynt and Tony Conrad, reuniting the two after years of estrangement. Flynt would become a lifelong friend. In 2008, during the financial crisis, when I lived with Jeff, we organized a series of four-hour lectures by Flynt in the loft’s kitchen, focusing on the crisis and communist economics. I vividly remember Tony Conrad attending one of them in his elegant pajamas. Perkins has directed two critically acclaimed films—one on abstract painter Sam Francis and another on the legendary Fluxus figure George Maciunas. He is currently finishing editing a film about Henry Flynt in Berlin. This podcast concludes with an excerpt from his piece Movies for the Blind, which features recordings of conversations with passengers from his time as a New York cab driver.

SD 43 Sandro Brito La afirmación de la vida en medio de la muerte Bolivar Echeverría Mar 11, 2025

Show notes

En este episodio, Sandro Brito, de la Cooperativa Cráter Invertido en Ciudad de México, nos introduce a la obra del marxista ecuatoriano Bolívar Echeverría y su biografía heterodoxa y fascinante. Como nos comenta Sandro, Echeverría, influenciado por el existencialismo de Unamuno, comenzó a interesarse en Sartre y Heidegger. Además, formó parte del grupo artístico Cortadores de Cabezas. En 1961, viajó a Friburgo con la intención de conocer a Heidegger, pero este lo rechazó por no saber alemán. Entonces se trasladó a Berlín, donde acabó en la Freie Universität, donde conoció a Rudi Dutschke. En esos años, Berlín era un hervidero radical donde las lecturas del marxismo subterráneo de Korsch y Lukács se combinaban con talleres de lectura de El capital fuera de la universidad. Era la época de Dieter Kunzelmann, Kommune 1, Spur, Hans-Jürgen Krahl, Subversive Aktion y su publicación Anschlag. En 1968, Echeverría llegó a Ciudad de México, un lugar de exilio para muchos radicales marxistas. En esos años, el marxismo en América Latina vivía un gran auge, con figuras como Óscar del Barco y José Aricó en Córdoba, Argentina. También destacaban casas editoriales como Siglo XXI, Casa de las Américas, Pensamiento Crítico, Biblioteca del Pensamiento Socialista y la Fundación Era. En 1974, comenzó la publicación de Cuadernos Políticos, donde Echeverría publicó sus primeros textos. Hablamos también de su concepción de la enajenación y su interpretación del fetichismo de la mercancía, el trabajo y el valor de uso, y cómo estos pueden ser comprendidos más allá del capital. Acabamos con su concepción de la modernidad y lo que el llama ethos barroco. Esta conversación tiene como trasfondo sonoro mezclas de Sandro, quien también es DJ como Emiliano Dietzgen.

SD42 - W/ Amy Ireland & Maya B. Kronic - Cute Accelerationism Jun 18, 2024

Show notes

Join us for an euphoric episode with our very good friends of the pod, Amy Ireland and Maya B. Kronic. Inspired by their work on Cute Accelerationism this episode explores the multiple dimensions of contemporary cuteness. From its sensory and cultural impacts to its erotic and semiotic layers, we unravel how Cute opens a gate to the transcendental process of acceleration itself.

SD41 - con Manuel Borja-Villel - El Museo en Ruinas Apr 30, 2024

Show notes

Para el presente episodio, hemos tenido el privilegio de conversar con Manuel Borja-Villel, cuya dirección en el Museo Reina Sofía ha marcado un antes y un después en el enfoque museístico moderno. Hablamos de las constantes guerras culturales que enfrenta el arte contemporáneo, del concepto de Cora, discutimos su reciente participación en la Bienal de São Paulo y las audaces propuestas que presentó para Documenta.

SD40 - w/ Alicia Juarrero - Context Changes Everything Apr 21, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of Social Discipline, we're joined by the renowned philosopher and complexity scientist, Alicia Juarrero. Alicia delves into the intricate world of causality in complex systems, offering insights from her seminal work, Dynamics in Action and Context Changes Everything. Throughout our conversation, she unpacks the principles of complexity and their implications for understanding human behavior and decision-making processes. We also explore how her theories challenge traditional views of causality and control in both social and natural sciences. Additionally, Alicia shares her thoughts on the ethical dimensions of complexity, particularly how they relate to issues of freedom and responsibility in contemporary society.

Social Discipline EP39 Howard Slater Feb 12, 2024

Show notes

In this cultural biography from the incendiary and radical poet and thinker Howard Slater (Break/Flow), we speak about far-left culture in Britain since the 1970s and its relationship to politics and poetry. Slater started the legendary Break/Flow zine in the 90s and participated in the Virtual Future conference. In the 2000s, he began the eclectic label Difficult Fun with others. In the early 2010s, he was part of developing MayDay Rooms, a fantastic archive and resource for social movements and marginal cultures based in London. Slater is currently translating Jacques Camatte and working on his poetry. This podcast includes previously unreleased poetry from Slater.

SD 38 w/Marwa Arsanios - Who Is Afraid of documenta fifteen? Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, we speak with artist Marwa Arsanios about her practice, documenta fifteen, feminism, and the possibility of reshaping the political potential of art. She talks to us about her ongoing project, Who Is Afraid of Ideology?, which Arsanios did as part of documenta fifteen. In this project, she explores through collaboration the possibility of communizing land and its practical, legal, and geological connotations. Furthermore, we discuss the aftermath of documenta fifteen and its problems. We also get to know about the origins of the title and the ideological differences in regards to feminism in Beirut in the last decade.

SD37 - w/ Hamja Ahsan - From Aspergistan to documenta fifteen Aug 27, 2022

Show notes

Conversation with artist, writer and curator Hamja Ahsan on the support campaign he organized for his brother Syed Talha Ahsan, his groundbreaking book Shy Radicals, his project at documenta fifteen and the hate campaign that he is receiving from some of the German media. Hamja talks openly about mental heath issues, islamophobia and the crucial support that he got from Anne Tallentire while he was studying at Central Saint Martins.

SD36 - w/ Diana Walsh Pasulka - A New Form of Religion Jul 27, 2022

Show notes

Miguel Prado and fellow Guild navigator (and co-host for today's episode) Sonia de Jager meet Diana Walsh Pasulka: professor of philosophy and religion at UNCW and author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology. We discuss what do we mean by agnostic when we want to be challenged by new knowledge, the UFO phenomena as a new form of religion, recent congress' public hearing into "unidentified aerial phenomena'', how ancient aliens could have handed technology to humanity and much more! Cover image by NonayahBiz https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/w92937/i_told_ai_starryai_to_show_me_the_moment_ancient/

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