A monograph by Ryder Richards
The Will to DIY
56-pages with pictures of “Chair” (an art piece by Ryder) and newly crafted diagrams on moving through stages of the machine, craftsman, artist, and politician.
A series of essays (a monograph) on the practice of “do it yourself” as a sociological rebelliousness, still contained within capitalism, yet harnessing a spirit that deviates from the standard universal, through the machinic craftsman, through the emotive self, and on to political agency in a type of cyclic discourse.
The text starts with Nietzsche’s notion of the Last man, moves into Marxist estrangement, looks at art and agency through Adorno in a commodified/mediated culture, and on to Mark Fisher, Benjamin Noys, and Frederick James as commentators on the state of change necessary.
Mostly academic, a bit tongue-in-cheek, Richards’ essays cobble together a philosophic vision of the DIY hobbyist laborer as a means of salvation from politics and alienation.
The Will to DIY
