Sianne Ngai (English, U of Chicago)
“The Gimmick as Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form”
This talk explores the gimmick as a form that simultaneously repels and attracts us and the judgment by which we express this ambivalent mixture of feelings. Stemming from the recognition of interlinked contradictions surrounding labor, time, and value, the gimmick offers a surprisingly rich place to think about capitalist aesthetics and the intertwining of technique and enchantment therein.