Changing the Memory of Suffering: An Organizational Aesthetics of the Dark Side

Abstract

This paper addresses processes of subjection and abjection as expressed in organizational and collective memory. It complements recent developments in organizational memory studies by demonstrating how the dark side of organization has been subjected to what Susan Sontag calls a ‘collective instruction’ process that normalizes how this dark side is understood, or marginalized. The paper argues that history today is often represented as kitsch and offers a method of aesthetic ‘juxtaposition’ of visual artefacts that together with a detailed reading enables researchers to critically challenge this organization of memory and reintegrate abjected material. The method is exemplified by juxtaposing the iconic World War II photo of a little Jewish boy leaving his home with his hands in the air during the Nazi clearances of the Warsaw Ghetto and Paul Klee’s iconic painting of an angel in terror, Angelus Novus, painted in 1920 just after World War I. The analysis demonstrates how history tends to be organized by a majoritarian system – in this case what has been termed ‘the Holocaust industry’ – through collective instruction in how to interpret events, and outlines alternative ways for exposing and resisting this process, resulting in the creation of counter-narratives. This analytical strategy confirms that organizational aesthetics resides at the heart of what is political.

Building on visuals: Taking stock and moving ahead

“…Aesthetics may also have been used to express opinion and criticism because they facilitate the gathering of collective emotions (Shrivastava & Ivanova, 2015) as art (Dutton, 2009). Sørensen (2014) confirms that aesthetics in organizations are a political dimension. Indeed, aesthetics may be considered as "a form of organizational knowledge" (Harter, Leeman, Norander, Young & Rawlins, 2008: 425) or a component of innovation (Eisenman, 2017).…”

“…In its figure 2, the Conversion of Saint Paul turned around is supposed to have a common visual organization with the "six basic parts of the organization". Even if the aim of these visual comparisons is to show how organization is produced in art through "aesthetic landscaping" and how these artistic reproductions convey certain images of the appropriate modern entrepreneurial self and regimes of organization (Sørensen, 2014), it is possible to remain sceptical.…”

Organizational Memory Studies

“…Sørensen’s (2014) paper in Organization Studies is illustrative of this critical approach to OMS. Through a technique of juxtaposition from art theory (comparing two pieces of art to unveil underlying counter-narratives), this paper examines how organizational aesthetics can impose a dominant, ‘mainstream’ memory about the organization’s past, while suppressing (but not completely destroying) marginal counter-memories.…”

Art performance as research, friction and deed

“…Long before the "socio-material turn" the material and embodied aspects have been central: organisations are first and foremost spaces in which bodies interact and feel. The founders of the field and their pioneering work (Strati & Guillet de Montoux, 2002) have made possible a whole range of new research within organisations studies (Taylor & Hansen, 2005), from philosophical approaches to the dark side of organising (Sørensen, 2014) to the analysis of the uncanny (Beyes & Steyaert, 2013), the disgusting (Pelzer, 2002) or even monstrous aspects of organisations (T Thanem, 2006). Artistic interventions in businesses that can help to "see more and see differently" (Barry & Meisiek, 2010) have also gained a new visibility, even if it has been difficult to establish their effect and consequently their value for businesses (Berthoin-Antal, 2012).…”