Tiqqun 1

Portrait Cover with Grotesques, attributed to Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, was used as the first issue's frontispiece

The journal's first issue included a frontispiece depicting a traditional Italian mask set against the Latin inscription SUA CUIQUE PERSONA (To each their own mask); masks are used frequently as metaphorical devices throughout the issue. The frontispiece is a detail of Portrait Cover with Grotesques [it], an Italian Renaissance painting of uncertain origin, commonly attributed to Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. The painting functioned as a practical art object, intended as a cover for a portrait painting. Although its companion is also uncertain, Portrait Cover has become associated with the portrait Veiled Woman [it], also attributed to Ghirlandaio. The two artworks are exhibited together at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.^[26]

Robert Fludd's image of the Void as a black square, repeated Et sic in infinitum, was used for illustration

Of course you know, this means war! is a brief opening piece which sets out the authors' disgust with modern society, which they liken to the Situationist notion of the Spectacle, and also to the Kabbalistic notion of qlippoth (shells, husks), the latter being evil forces in Jewish mysticism. Against the prevailing social order, the authors propose Tiqqun, referring both to the Jewish concept of healing, and also to the journal itself. The piece is dated Venice, January 15, 1999.^[27] What is Critical Metaphysics? gives a description of its titular subject, which is opposed to "commodity domination", or commodity metaphysics. The article's title is a play on What is Metaphysics?, a lecture given by Heidegger in 1929.^[28][29] According to the authors, critical metaphysics is an irrepressable, anti-capitalist way of perceiving reality, which consumer culture, modernity and analytic philosophy have failed to eliminate.^[30] The authors stress that the concept is not academic, but practical: "Critical Metaphysics is in everyone's guts."^[31] Persons who engage in critical metaphysics are described as critical metaphysicians. In one passage, people who join to "politicize metaphysics" represent the emergence of "the coming insurrection of the Mind";^[32] The Coming Insurrection was the title later given to the first work by The Invisible Committee.^{[lower-alpha 9]} Between articles an image of a black square was reproduced, taken from a work by the occult philosopher Robert Fludd. For Fludd, the black square represented the Void which preceded the Creation.^[35] The authors reproduced the image to illustrate surrounding themes of nothingness and night.^[36]

Beginning with a quotation from the James Joyce novel Ulysses,^[38] Theory of Bloom^{[lower-alpha 11]} describes a phenomenon in which people become alienated from each other as a consequence of living in capitalist society. Although the term "Bloom" is used contextually throughout the issue to refer to an alienated modern subject, the authors explicitly deny this characterization as reductive, instead describing Bloom as a Stimmung, or a certain "mood" of personality.^[45] According to the authors, a Bloom is "foreign to himself" in the sense that capitalist society denies him the ability to be his authentic self. Bloom is thus a kind of "mask", recalling the issue's frontispiece. Modern society therefore encourages superficial identification with various predicate labels (being a woman, being gay, being British, etc.), which the authors refer to as "poor substantiality", in an effort to prevent the socially harmful consequences of an isolated population.^[46] Since a Bloom is alienated from the modern society held in contempt by the authors, they consider that his rejection of that society can lead to violence, expressed in the murders committed by Mitchell Johnson and Kipland Kinkel, among others.^{[47][lower-alpha 12]} Phenomenology of Everyday Life is a brief piece in which the narrator describes an "absurd" interaction with a bakery clerk, where each is expected to play the economic roles of customer and vendor.^{[49][lower-alpha 13]}

The journal's first issue used an artwork by Umberto Boccioni (Quelli che Restano/Those Who Remain) to illustrate an article describing the Imaginary Party^[50]

Theses on the Imaginary Party describes its title's subject as a portion of humanity who come to reject modern society. Spectacle and biopower are presented as two reinforcing aspects of modernity: the former is a control mechanism which ensures compliance with and reproduction of the society's norms, while the latter presents itself as a benevolent force providing for the needs of the population.^[51] Against these, "agents" of the Imaginary Party commit acts which are pathologized by the society as antisocial and irrational, including rioting and mass shootings. According to the authors, Blooms are prone to become members of the Imaginary Party because of their alienation from modern society. Johann Georg Elser, failed assassin of Adolf Hitler, is described by the authors as a "model Bloom", due to his modest life.^[52] Silence and Beyond is a piece which describes the threatening power of silence when wielded by a group of rioters. The article describes the 1998 suicide of Edoardo Massari, an Italian anarchist who was jailed in Turin on suspicion of eco-terrorism against construction sites for the Italian TGV high-speed train. In response, anarchist rioters silently marched through Turin over the next several days, brandishing weapons, damaging property, and assaulting journalists.^[53] The authors praised the rioters' tactics because by refusing to make demands or to communicate in conventional ways, the rioters frustrated commentators who insisted on dialogue, instead expressing their opposition to existing society using violent direct action.^[17] On the Economy Considered as Black Magic is a criticism of modern economics. The authors reject the economic property of fungibility as dehumanizing, since it leads to the fungibility of human beings themselves; Blooms are "absolutely equivalent" with each other (as potential employees, members of society, etc.) and therefore adopt superficial traits in an effort to present individual personalities.^[54] The authors also reject what they describe as the ahistorical retconning of modern economic theory onto all human history. As a counterexample, they cite the gift economy of the Kula ring in Papua New Guinea, as described in Bronisław Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific.^[55]

Preliminary Materials For a Theory of the Young-Girl^{[lower-alpha 15]} describes "the Young-Girl" as a social archetype related to young women's femininity in modern capitalist society. The article consists of a series of glosses, including declarative statements on the characteristics of the Young-Girl and phrases taken from women's magazines.^[60] The archetype is complementary to Bloom: whereas Bloom is an alienated subject who threatens to harm capitalist society, the Young-Girl fully participates in, is a commodity of, and defends that society.^[61] Although the article focuses on traits and language associated with femininity, it also stresses that men can function as Young-Girls in society by participating in and upholding it, while also taking care to uphold their public image out of vanity. A quotation attributed to Silvio Berlusconi describes him as a male Young-Girl: "They've wounded me in what is most dear to me: my image."^[62] Building on these themes, Machine-Men: User's Guide is a feminist piece which discusses prescription drugs—especially Viagra—as a form of biopolitical technology.^[63] The Critical Metaphysicians beneath the "Unemployed Persons' movement" is a brief article describing an "unemployed workers'" movement in France during 1997 and 1998, including reproductions of related protest flyers.^[64] A Few Scandalous Actions of the Imaginary Party is a series of vignettes recounting situations instigated by the authors and their associates; the piece ends with a satirical mockery of the novelist Michel Houellebecq, an object of scorn for the authors.^[65]

Tiqqun 2

The journal's second issue reproduced a photograph of the September 11 attacks (similar to that shown) to illustrate an article about civil war;^[66] the second issue was published just after the attacks

Introduction to Civil War expands the concept of civil war to become a philosophical category explaining human interactions. According to the authors, individuals have various inclinations, which are forms of life.^[67] Because humans have differing inclinations and share the same world, they exist in a state of civil war with each other—their conflicts are not those of states in conventional warfare, and although not necessary, the possibility of violence is never excluded.^[68] States and modern society developed as mechanisms which sought to neutralize the natural state of civil war; against this, the authors propose natural civil war as the preferable state for humanity, which they liken to Tiqqun.^[19] The Cybernetic Hypothesis describes the rise of cybernetics in the years following World War II, a modern paradigm of control mechanisms which supplanted the "liberal hypothesis".^[69] The liberal hypothesis refers to the dominance of liberalism—and the ideal of rational self-interest—from the early 19th through the early 20th centuries, until societal control was sought for its own sake. Cybernetics was developed with military applications: Norbert Wiener developed an automated, predictive anti-aircraft system, and the need to develop a decentered communication system in the event of nuclear war gave rise to the internet.^[70] Since cybernetic systems seek control and equilibrium, the authors advocate their defeat by creating unmanagable situations.^[71] The article was illustrated by various images depicting technology, including works by H.R. Giger suggesting its disturbing aspects.^{[lower-alpha 16][lower-alpha 17]} Theses on the Terrible Community describes pathological communities which arise in modern society. Although such communities may include countercultures, they can also include mainstream communities, such as modern corporations. Terrible communities seek to preserve themselves at the cost of the inability of their members to speak honestly with each other, referred to in the article as parrhesia. The authors seek to replace terrible communities with authentic communities whose members can be honest with each other.^[83]

Alfred Kubin's Selbsbetrachtung/Self-Observation was used to illustrate The Problem of the Head^[84][85]

The Problem of the Head is a criticism of avant-garde groups in revolutionary politics and the arts, which present themselves as the "heads" of their corresponding movements. "The Problem of the Head" also refers to the questions of societal leadership (a king, a president, a business, etc.), and the form of leadership in a society (monarchy, democracy, oligarchy, etc.). The authors claim that the liberal hypothesis was a previous answer to the problem, eventually replaced by the cybernetic hypothesis. The inter-war period from 1914 to 1945 was a time of instability, and this is what allowed avant-garde movements—such as Surrealism and Bolshevism—to flourish. However, avant-garde movements tend to become preoccupied with their own culture and internal issues, to the detriment of the broader issues that they claim to represent, and are therefore likened to terrible communities. A note indicates that in June 2000, the piece was read aloud at a retrospective exhibit of modern art in Venice, upsetting two of the participating artists.^[86] "A critical metaphysics could emerge as a science of apparatuses..." is presented as the founding text of the SACS, the Society for the Advancement of Criminal Science. The authors describe modern society as a series of control mechanisms, or apparatuses; examples include highways, store security, and turnstiles.^{[87][lower-alpha 18]} For the authors, the "science of apparatuses" is thus simply the science of crime, techniques for circumventing and defeating control apparatuses.^[15] The authors therefore promote the collection and dissemination of criminal techniques intended to undermine capitalist society.^{[lower-alpha 19]} Report to the S.A.C.S. Concerning an Imperial Apparatus is a critical account of Bluewater, a shopping mall outside London, newly completed at the time of writing. The authors compare the modern shopping mall to 19th-century historical precursors, including the French arcades and The Crystal Palace. They also describe shopping malls using terms taken from the Project on the City, a book series on urban planning just mentioned by name—and derided—in the previous article.^[91] The article describes the 1956 opening of the Southdale Center—the world's first enclosed, air-conditioned shopping mall—air conditioning itself, and artificial plants, referred to as "Replascape".^[92] Articles on all three topics appear in the volumes Mutations^[93] and Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping.^[94]

The Little Game of the Man of the Old Regime is a critique of a conservative social archetype, described as an older person who withdraws from society while criticizing it, presenting themselves as above or outside social conflict. The authors describe the Man of the Old Regime as a specific type of Bloom whose critique of society is impotent; they also attribute several negative traits to the archetype, including false consciousness.^[95] In the original issue the article was followed by You're Never Too Old to Ditch Out, a small piece which encouraged older people to withdraw from mainstream society and instead seek authentic community with others, as opposed to isolation. Sonogram of a Potential is a feminist article treating sonograms, abortion, and women's history during the Italian Years of Lead in the 1970s. The authors use the Herman Melville shory story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and its protagonist's phrase "I would prefer not to" as devices to explore the concepts of general strike and sex strikes.^{[96][lower-alpha 20]} This Is Not a Program describes the Years of Lead in detail, contrasting the Italian "Creeping May" of 1977 with the French protests of May 1968. During the period of civil unrest, several left wing factions competed with each other and with the Italian state. The established Left consisted of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), labor unions and worker's movements, while a more radical faction—the Autonomists—rejected organizational hierarchy and work itself. In the context of anarchist movements, the authors describe the Imaginary Party as a "plane of consistency" where individuals who seek to subvert modern society can find each other and form alliances.^[99] How Is It to Be Done? is a brief lyrical piece summarizing the issue's themes, its title a play on Lenin's work What Is to Be Done?.^[100] Referring to the issue's subtitle, the authors seek to inhabit "zones of offensive opacity"—akin to no-go zones—as points from which to begin an assault on modern capitalist society.^[101] In order to maintain opacity, the authors encourage the rejection of predicate labels associated with identity politics because authorities might use them to more easily identify individuals.^[102] The piece ends with a call to insurrection.^[103]

Related texts

Other texts not appearing in the original journal have been associated with Tiqqun and the Invisible Committee. The Great Game of Civil War is a brief piece describing the difficulty of leaving modern society, using sarcastic language similar to that found in Tiqqun's flyers and a ten-point format similar to Final Warning to the Imaginary Party.^[113] In 2004, the postscript to an Italian edition of Theory of Bloom announced the forthcoming publication of Call (Appel), an anonymous tract which proposed secession from mainstream capitalist society.^[114][115] Call used vocabulary and rhetoric common to both Tiqqun and the Invisible Committee (e.g. Spectacle and biopower, an imperative to form communes). Call was later criticized on the Left for its suggestion that actors can unilaterally withdraw from capitalist society on their own terms. According to the critic, capitalism continues to inform relations of production throughout society, a situation from which potential defectors cannot immediately escape.^[116]

Original French sources

• Tiqqun (1999). Tiqqun, Organe conscient du Parti Imaginaire: Exercices de Métaphysique Critique – via archive.org. Original French edition of Tiqqun 1.
• Tiqqun (2001). Tiqqun, Organe de liaison au sein du Parti Imaginaire: Zone d'Opacité Offensive – via archive.org. Original French edition of Tiqqun 2.

English translations

• Tiqqun (2020). The Cybernetic Hypothesis. Semiotext(e) Intervention Series. Vol. 28. Translated by Hurley, Robert. Semiotext(e). ISBN 9781635900927. Translation of the article which originally appeared in Tiqqun 2.
• Tiqqun (2010). Introduction to Civil War. Semiotext(e) Intervention Series. Vol. 4. Translated by Galloway, Alexander R.; Smith, Jason E. Semiotext(e). ISBN 9781584350866. Translation of the titular article, and also of "How Is It to Be Done?", which both originally appeared in Tiqqun 2.
• Tiqqun (2012). Preliminary Materials For a Theory of the Young-Girl (PDF). Semiotext(e) Intervention Series. Vol. 12. Translated by Reines, Ariana. Semiotext(e). ISBN 9781584351085. Translation of a revised version of the article which originally appeared in Tiqqun 1.
• Tiqqun (2012). Theory of Bloom (PDF). Translated by Hurley, Robert. Little Black Cart. ISBN 9781620490020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-07-14. Translation of the article which originally appeared in Tiqqun 1.
• Tiqqun (2011). This is Not a Program (PDF). Semiotext(e) Intervention Series. Vol. 7. Translated by Jordan, Joshua David. Semiotext(e). ISBN 9781584350972. Translation of the titular article, and also of "A critical metaphysics could emerge as a science of apparatuses...", which both originally appeared in Tiqqun 2.
• Tiqqun (October 2011). Tiqqun, Conscious Organ of the Imaginary Party: Exercises in Critical Metaphysics (PDF). Translated by Tiqqunista. Little Black Cart. Unofficial English translation of Tiqqun 1.