Interpassivity ─ The Aesthetics of Delegated Enjoyment

Why do people record TV programmes instead of watching them? Why are some recovering alcoholics pleased to let other people drink in their place? Why can ritual machines pray in place of believers?

Robert Pfaller advances the theory of 'interpassivity' as delegated consumption and enjoyment. Applicable to both art and everyday life, the concept allows him to tackle a vast range of phenomena: culture, art, sports and religion.

Pfaller criticises dominant assumptions, offers an escape from prevailing ideologies and exposes how cultural capitalism promotes commodities with the promise of happiness.

Robert Pfaller is Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Theory at the University of Art and Industrial Design of Linz, Austria. His publications are mainly in German but his most recent book is in English: The Pleasure Principle in Culture: Illusions without Owners (Verso, 2014). His German books include Umazano Sveto in Cisti Um (Ljubljana: Analecta, 2009), Wofuer es sich zu leben lohnt. Elemente materialistischer Philosophie (Fischer, 2011), Das schmutzige Heilige und die reine Vernunft. Symptome der Gegenwartskultur (Fischer, 2008), Die Asthetik der Interpassivitat (Hamburg: philo fine arts, 2008) and Die Illusionen der anderen. Uber das Lustprinzip in der Kultur (Suhrkamp, 2002).