Jakob Jakobsen at SPA

Jakob Jakobsen who ran Copenhagen Free University spoke to SPA on Monday night. He outlined two major concepts for his processes:
Self organisation: The act of producing your own tools, so that you produce the means of production within the production. He presented the analogy of workers in a factory who operate machines that are made and owned by others so that the wealth of their labour is filtered away from them, so that their productivity is making money for others. Conversely, Jakobsen promotes a system of producing your own ‘machines’ so that the productivity is your own.
Autonomy: The act of producing your own system of laws and values.
Power: Power is productive and you must be productive yourself. So, rather than fight the power, take power. The key is to produce a new kind of subjectivity that can take power and once you have claimed power, don’t accumulate it.

Jakobsen set up the Info Centre in London called The Institution for Human Life, with an explicit view to operating for only one year. The info centre provided a space for information exchange and represented various networks, including the Association of Autonomous Astronauts.

On his return to Copenhagen, he and his partner wanted to create another alternative space. They had reflected on the fact that strikes had been the traditional weapon of the worker but considered how it could be possible to produce resistance in the new socio-economic landscape. The idea came easily, start at the core of knowledge production: Universities. The Copenhagen Free University/ University of the Everyday operated out of their home for six years.