Qualifications
German
My teaching is principally located in the historical and theoretical studies modules of the undergraduate Fine Art programme, for which I have been lead coordinator for some years. I am also the lead coordinator of the Art and Philosophy pathway modules in the undergraduate Fine Art programme.
My research has tended to concern the philosophical critique of capitalism, with particular attention to issues of culture and contemporary art. Frankfurt School 'Critical Theory' has been particularly influential in this orientation – my PhD thesis addressed 'Adorno and the Problem of Philosophy' (2002) – but a range of other schools and figures have also contributed to my current approaches, particularly recent French philosophy. Within the broad scope of this orientation, I have pursued a number of research projects. These include: a critical reconsideration of the history of philosophical aesthetics; an investigation of the idea of 'absolute art'; a study of the internalisation of capitalism within the self-conception of philosophy; and, latterly, a philosophical examination of the subsumption of life by capital. My publications mostly derive from these projects. Currently, I am writing a book on the subsumption of life by capital in the writings of Marx and various post-Marxist thinkers. I am also working on an examination of the aesthetic consequences of such a subsumption.
'Karl Marx' entry in Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
'Approaching Marx's aesthetics, or what is sensuous practice?' in Re/New Marxist Art History, edited by Warren Carter, Barnaby Haran and Frederic J. Schwartz, Art/Books, forthcoming.
'Short Treatise on Art', in Aesthetics and Contemporary Art, edited by Armen Avanessian and Luke Skrebowski, Sternberg Press, Berlin and New York, 2011, pp. 145-157.
'Capitalist Life in Lukács', in Georg Lukács: The Fundamental Dissonance of Existence, edited by Timothy Bewes and Timothy Hall, Continuum, London, 2011, pp. 138-153.
'Artistic Communism – A Sketch', Third Text [special issue on 'Art, Praxis and the Community to Come' edited by John Roberts], vol. 23, issue 4, July 2009, pp. 481-94.
'Visual Culture or Art?', in Kunst und Politik, Bd. 10, 2008, pp. 21-28.
'Pedagogy of Human Capital', in Mute, vol. 2, #8, 2008. Also available at: http://www.metamute.org/en/Pedagogy-of-Human-Capital. Republished in The Perfect Storm, Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, 2008.
'The Absolute Artwork Meets The Absolute Commodity', in Radical Philosophy, no. 146, Nov/Dec 2007, pp. 15-25. Republished in What Is To Be Done? [Magazine] #01 [special issue on 'What is the use of art?], 2009 - available at http://www.chtodelat.org/
'Wall's Tableau Mort', in Oxford Art Journal, (special issue on Jeff Wall), vol 30.1, March 2007, 117-133.
'An Aesthetic Education Against Aesthetic Education', in Radical Philosophy, no. 141, Jan/Feb 2007, pp. 39-42. (Contribution to the Documenta 12 Journals project.) Republished/translated in TkH 13 [Journal for Performing Arts Theory, Belgrade], Sept 2007, pp. 12-16. Republished in Curating and the Educational Turn, edited by O'Neill and Wilson, Open Editions, 2010.
'Critique of Relational Aesthetics', in ISMS : Recuperating Political Radicality in Contemporary Art: Constructing the Political, Verksted no. 8, Kuzma and Osborne eds., Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Oslo, 2007, pp. 97-127. Republished in Third Text, Volume 21, Issue 4, July 2007, pp. 369-386
'Literature and the Modern System of the Arts: Adorno's Theory of Art and the Arts:', in Adorno and Literature, Cunningham and Mapp eds., Continuum, London and New York, 2006, pp. 9-25.
'Culs-de-sac' [Review article of Jacques Rancière, The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible and Alain Badiou, Handbook of Inaesthetics], in Radical Philosophy, no. 131, May/June, 2005, pp. 39-44. Translated in Le Monde Diplomatique (Norwegian-Danish edition), April 2006, pp. 18-19.
'W.G. Sebald and the Modern Art of Memory', Radical Philosophy, no. 132, July/Aug 2005, pp.18-30. Reprinted in Photography and Literature in the Twentieth Century, Cunningham, Fisher and Mays eds., Cambridge Scholars Press, 2005, pp. 180-201.
'A New World Art? Documenting Documenta 11', Radical Philosophy, no. 122, Nov/Dec, 2003, pp. 7-19.
'Anti-Art and Autonomy: Adorno's Theory of Avant-Garde Art', (special section on 'The Aesthetics of Late Modernism', edited by J.M. Bernstein) Constellations, vol. 7, no. 2, 2000, pp. 197-207. Republished in Theodor Adorno. Sage Masters in Modern Social Thought, 4 volumes, Delanty ed., Sage Publications, 2004, in vol. 2 ('Aesthetic Theory'), pp. 179-91.
Martin, Stewart (2022) Negt and Kluge's alternative collective worker and synthetic apperception. Contours (11). pp. 1-21. ISSN 2369-2340
Martin, Stewart (2021) Myth and the art strike of the international parallel union of telecommunications. In: Non-Construction: An Architectural Gesture in Artistic Research. Hardliz, Ronny , ed. Diaphanes. (Accepted/In press)
Martin, Stewart (2020) Art strikes: an inventory. Mute Publishing, UK.
Martin, Stewart (2020) Commodity. In: Keywords for Marxist Art History Today. Abse Gogarty, Larne and Hemingway, Andrew , eds. Kunst und Politik: Jahrbuch der Guernica-Gesellschaft, 21 (2019). V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen, pp. 39-48. ISBN 9783847111146
Martin, Stewart (2017) Sohn-Rethel’s critique of epistemology and art. In: Das Wissen der Arbeit und das Wissen der Künste. Gerber, Marina and Fugellie, Daniela , eds. Schriftenreihe des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs "Das Wissen der Künste" . Wilhelm Fink, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 29-48. ISBN 9783770560486
