✧༺ Becoming Constellations ༻✧

Walter Benjamin and Metamodernism

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Walter Benjamin and Metamodernism: Constellations of Oscillation

Introduction: Benjamin as Proto-Metamodern Thinker

Walter Benjamin’s work, though firmly rooted in early 20th century modernism and critical theory, contains remarkable prefigurations of what we now identify as metamodernism. This document explores these connections and how Benjamin’s thought can be reinterpreted through a metamodern lens to enrich both frameworks, particularly as they relate to the Becoming Constellations project.

Metamodernism, characterized by oscillation between modernist hope and postmodernist skepticism, finds an unlikely predecessor in Benjamin, whose work similarly moved between revolutionary optimism and melancholic critique.

Key Connections

1. Oscillation Between Polarities

Benjamin’s Dialectical Images:

  • Benjamin’s concept of the “dialectical image” represents a moment where past and present enter into a constellation, creating a tension without resolution
  • These images capture contradictions without forcing synthesis

Metamodern Oscillation:

  • Metamodernism’s defining characteristic of oscillation between modernist and postmodernist sensibilities
  • “Both-neither” dynamic that resists final resolution

Connection to Becoming Constellations:

  • Our project’s use of “constellations” as configurations that hold tensions in productive relationships
  • The lunar calendar’s alternation between waxing and waning as temporal manifestation of oscillation

2. Messianic Time vs. Metamodern Temporality

Benjamin’s Messianic Time:

  • Opposition to “homogeneous, empty time” of progress
  • The “now-time” (Jetztzeit) that ruptures linear history
  • Messianic potential within the mundane present

Metamodern Temporality:

  • Metamodernism’s “atopos” - being simultaneously in and out of time
  • The “as if” modality - acting as if progress is possible while recognizing its impossibility
  • Return to historical consciousness after postmodern “end of history”

Connection to Becoming Constellations:

  • Our lunar calendar system as practical implementation of non-linear temporality
  • Recognition of “monadic moments” as opportunities for transformation

3. Redemptive Aesthetics

Benjamin’s Redemptive Critique:

  • Art’s capacity to redeem fragments of the past through reconfiguration
  • The concept of “rescue” (Rettung) of historical phenomena
  • The “weak messianic power” invested in each generation

Metamodern Reconstructive Aesthetics:

  • Post-ironic sincerity that acknowledges yet transcends cynicism
  • Reconstruction after postmodern deconstruction
  • The “new sincerity” movement in art and culture

Connection to Becoming Constellations:

  • Our cultural work that creates “states of emergency” in time
  • The integration of spiritual traditions with critical awareness
  • The practice of creating new configurations from historical fragments

Divergences and Tensions

1. Critical vs. Reconstructive Emphasis

Benjamin’s Critical Negativity:

  • Focus on critique and negative dialectics
  • The catastrophic nature of history as “pile of debris”
  • Revolutionary rupture rather than evolutionary reform

Metamodernism’s Reconstructive Orientation:

  • Emphasis on creating new structures after postmodern deconstruction
  • Working within existing systems while reimagining them
  • Pragmatic utopianism rather than revolutionary break

Productive Tension for Our Project:

  • How to balance critical negativity with reconstructive positivity
  • Finding regenerative potential within Benjamin’s critique

2. Technological Attitudes

Benjamin’s Ambivalence Toward Technology:

  • Recognition of technological progress as double-edged
  • Mechanical reproduction’s democratic potential alongside concerns about loss of aura
  • The technological as potentially messianic or catastrophic

Metamodern Digital Networks:

  • Digital technology as enabling new forms of community and meaning
  • Network structures replacing hierarchical ones
  • Virtual spaces as sites for new meaning-making

Questions for Further Development:

  • How might Benjamin interpret contemporary digital networks?
  • What forms of “aura” persist or emerge in digital spaces?
  • How can technological tools serve regenerative purposes?

3. Political Horizons

Benjamin’s Revolutionary Politics:

  • Marxist framework with messianic dimensions
  • Fundamental break with capitalist modernity
  • Radical discontinuity with the present order

Metamodern Political Engagement:

  • Working within systems while reimagining them
  • Pragmatic idealism and “as if” orientation
  • Emphasis on small-scale prefigurative politics

Bridging the Gap:

  • Dual power structures as synthesis of revolutionary and reformist approaches
  • Local node networks as contemporary manifestation of Benjamin’s “constellations”
  • Regenerative practices as concrete manifestations of theoretical possibilities

Applications for Becoming Constellations

Theoretical Framework Extension

  1. Dialectical Oscillation Model

    • Develop a model of “regenerative oscillation” that incorporates Benjamin’s dialectical images and metamodern oscillation
    • Map oscillatory patterns in social and ecological systems

  2. Temporality Practices

    • Expand the Mondeszetteln system to include awareness of metamodern temporal modes
    • Design practices that cultivate sensitivity to “monadic moments”

  3. Aesthetic Interventions

    • Create cultural interventions that embody both Benjaminian critique and metamodern reconstruction
    • Develop dialectical images for the digital age

Practical Implementations

  1. Community Structures

    • Design organizational models that oscillate between different modes of governance and decision-making
    • Create “constellations” of community practices that hold productive tensions

  2. Regenerative Economics

    • Develop economic approaches that integrate Benjamin’s critique of capitalism with metamodern pragmatic reconstruction
    • Build dual power structures that prefigure alternatives while engaging with existing systems

  3. Educational Approaches

    • Design learning experiences that cultivate both critical awareness and reconstructive abilities
    • Foster dialectical thinking that can hold multiple perspectives in productive tension

Research Directions

  1. Explore how Benjamin’s concept of the “angel of history” might be reinterpreted through metamodern sensibilities
  2. Investigate how Benjamin’s approach to fragments and quotation relates to metamodern approaches to cultural remix
  3. Analyze contemporary examples of “dialectical images” in digital culture and activism
  4. Develop a typology of “oscillations” that can inform regenerative design
  5. Explore how Benjamin’s concept of “profane illumination” might inform contemporary spiritual-but-not-religious practices

“To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize ‘how it really was.’ It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger.” — Walter Benjamin

“Metamodernism moves for the sake of moving, attempts in spite of its inevitable failure; it seeks forever for a truth that it never expects to find.” — Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker