Do Not Research Reading Group v.2024

The v.2024 DNR reading group was facilitated by Danny Garfield, Jeff Sauer and Courageous Emu. A special thank you to DJ Meisner for guiding our reading of VALIS by Phillip K. Dick, the final book of this year’s syllabus.

---

---

[Do Not Research] Not So Secret Syllabus v.2024 - spring

This syllabus builds from previous work by the DNR community. It is a supplemental reading course meant to engage individuals who are interested in the topics of labor, internet culture, media studies and art.

Freedom from, Freedom to
“Can ‘post-work’ be an inspiring political imaginary?”
https://legacy.donotresearch.net/projects/sketchbook-abbey-pusz

—

Week 1 - February 11, 2024

Read
After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time
Helen Hester & Nick Srnicek
Introduction through Chapter 3 (pages 7 - 60)

—

Week 2

Reading continues from above

—

Week 3 - February 25, 2024

Read
After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time
Chapter 4 through Chapter 6 (pages 61 - 130)

—

Week 4

Reading continues from above

—

Find A Protest Near You 24/7/365
“The more things change, the more they stay the same”
https://legacy.donotresearch.net/posts/you-can-do-the-macarena-to-any-song

—

Week 5 - March 10, 2024

Read
If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution
Vincent Bevins
Part 1 (pages 23 - 129)

—

Week 6

Reading continues from above

Optional Activity
Reflection journaling: Reflect on a community/protest you participated in. What worked? What did not? Opportunity to share reflections in the Discord or craft into a larger piece.

—

Week 7 - March 24, 2024

Read
If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution
Part 2 (pages 138 - 247)

—

Week 8

Reading continues from above

Optional Activity
Prepare to plant a meme. Your motivating quote: “... a century ago, the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin apparently said that, ‘there are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.’”

—

New religions
“Feel the AGI!”
https://donotresearch.substack.com/p/sybil-montet-i-scry

—

Week 10 - April 7, 2024

Read
TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information
Erik Davis
Chapters I, II, IV (pages 23 - 85, 110 - 135)

—

Week 11

Reading continues from above

Optional Activity
Consider some recent news stories about the near-spiritual belief in artificial general intelligence (AGI, example story from Futurism and Athenil). How have - or how might - intersections emerge between existing religions and AGI? Try to represent these intersections through the use of images, collages, or other visual mediums. Bonus points for pairing with a partner.

—

Week 12 - April 21, 2024

Read
TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information
Chapters VI, VII, IX, Afterword 2.0 (pages 170 - 225, 252 - 284, 338-347)

—

Week 13

Reading continues from above

—

Creative destruction
“Neoliberalization has meant, in short, the financialization of everything”
https://legacy.donotresearch.net/posts/neoliberal-childrens-books

—

Week 14 - May 5, 2024

Read
PsychoPolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power
Byung-Chul Han, Translated by Erik Butler
Chapters 1 - 6 (pages 9 - 31)

—

Week 15

Reading continues from above

—

Week 16 - May 19, 2024

Read
PsychoPolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power
Chapter 7 - 13 (pages 35 - 66)

—

Week 17

Reading continues from above

—

Post-carbon Eco-extraction Tree-planting Eco-fascist Hypernormalization
“I want to believe [in a better future]”
https://legacy.donotresearch.net/posts/over-hyphenated-platform-capitalism-futures

—

Week 18 - June 2, 2024

Read
VALIS
Philip K. Dick
Chapter 1 - 7 (pages 1 - 82)

—

Week 19

Reading continues from above

—

Week 20 - June 16, 2024

Read
VALIS
Chapter 8 - 14 (pages 83 - 163)

—

Week 21

Reading continues from above

—

The Do Not Research Reading Group v.2024 is archived on its own external site: https://dnrbook2024.cargo.site/. The site includes essays and audio works by several participants that will be published in a forthcoming post.

• The DNR Gateway Tape by ZJ & Georgia Petit

• New Age Simulacra-Maxxing Evolution/acc by Colleen Bornt

• Lemures by Sean Jewell

• Topline Historical Account of EARTH MIND's Social Alchemy Saga by Georgia Pettit

• Parasympathy for the Devil by Danny Garfield