NM81 | Marek Poliks on Exocapitalism, Lift, and Non-Player Dynamics

Marek Poliks, co-host of the Disintegrator pod, shares his theory (with research partner Roberto Alonso Trillo) of “lift,” in which capitalism as we’ve known it pulls away from the realm of human activity to arbitrage increasingly abstract systems. Within this frame, things start to get very weird—for one, we all become non-players—and inefficiency starts to be a source of value. 

Image: Lebbeus Woods, High Houses (Sarajevo), 1995. (detail)

For more:

Pod: Disintegrator (Roberto Alonso Trillo & Marek Poliks)

Talk: Non-Player Dynamics: Agency Fetish in Game-World (Foreign Object, 2024)

Book: Choreomata: Performance and Performativity After AI (Routledge, 2023)