Spring-Summer 2022
INITIAL MEETING: (Private)
Hosted by Sepideh Majidi & David Roden
APRIL 2nd: GROUP 1
APRIL 3rd: GROUP 0
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We will start by introducing the first Interactive Workshop with David Roden. (up to 30 mins.)
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I will then go over the rest of the schedule and a basic introduction. (up to 30 mins.)
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Then, the participants in each group will introduce themselves (up to 3 min/participant)
READING GROUP WITH BORNA RADNIK - KANT AND HEGEL (Public)
UNDER THE LABS:
POSTHUMAN AGENCY, WORLD-MAKING, POSTHUMAN AESTHETICS, POSTHUMAN ETHICS, POSTHUMAN COLLECTIVES
April 9th
Programmer: Sepideh Majidi
Organized by Foreign Objekt
To address the status of the Subject in contemporary philosophy, and the issue of subjectivity vs. de-centered/posthuman theories, we started with several essays from David Roden about the theoretical core of Speculative Posthumanism. With Borna Radnik, we read some introductory texts by Kant and Hegel
Also many of you are exploring post-dialectical and non-dialectical world-models within the Posthuman framework,
we will look at different types of dialectical relations, specifically within the works of Kant and Hegel. In general, the goal is to understand how complex these models are and understand how they work.
This informal reading group will offer a basic background into the transcendental structure and the relation to the Outside—for example, phenomena, noumena, and also the notions of aesthetics and ethics. And how the subject or agency is being constituted in relation to the unbound, from physics and metaphysics to spirit.
Also, transcendental epistemology addresses some of the important questions in computer science, cognitive science, and cosmology; for example, questions of non-computability, aliens and radically different forms of intuition(in a Kantian and Boltzmanian sense), and what it means to expand our computational, conceptual, and cognitive resource to compute and make intelligible, that which is non-computable and unintelligible to us.
Text By Sepideh Majidi
INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP Posthuman Dialectics: the Antinomy of Embodiment and Abstraction
POSTHUMAN BODY, POSTHUMAN AGENCY, WORLD MAKING, POSTHUMAN AESTHETICS, POSTHUMAN PERFORMANCE, POSTHUMAN ETHICS
Designed by David Roden and Sepideh Majidi
Organized by Sepideh Majidi
(More information to come)
Posthumanism needs a body. Without a notion of embodiment, it is unclear how to explore the ethical salience of the 'posthuman predicament', the place of agency within a world of accelerating technical and ecological change. On the other hand, a rigorous posthumanist and inhumanist epistemology implies that we should abstract from empirical bodies. But this subtractive move threatens to leave us without a philosophical basis for thinking embodiment. Is this an irresolvable aporia, or is there a path beyond this antinomy that can foster a posthumanist ethics and politics?
How each of the residents responds to these problems: essentially the antinomy between embodiment and abstraction, between critical posthumanism and inhumanism, etc. as different ways of conceptualizing the future of life.
Text by David Roden
We will start the conceptual and visual map and framework on the Miro Board.
This Interactive Workshop consists of 3 parts:
1- Informal reading group between the participants (private)
Participants to divide into smaller groups for reading discussion (1 hour).
Regroup into groups of five. Each participant gives a short presentation about readings in relation to their project. (up to 10 mins.)
April 16th (group 1)
April 17th (group 0)
2- Public lecture by David Roden discussing some main points of the readings
Lecture (up to 1.5 hours) followed by questions and discussion. (Overall 3hrs).
April 23rd
3- Private interactive meeting with David Roden for each group (Private)
May 7th (Group 1)
May 8th (Group 0)
INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP: RECONFIGURATION OF THE SHARED SPACE
WITH SEPIDEH MAJIDI AND ALIREZA TAHERI (WORKSHOP DESIGN IN PROGRESS)
UNDER THE LABS:
POSTHUMAN BODY, POSTHUMAN AGENCY, WORLDMAKING, POSTHUMAN ECOLOGY, POSTHUMAN COLLECTIVES, POSTHUMAN ETHICS, POSTHUMAN SPRITUALITY. POSTHUMAN PEDAGOGY
This workshop will examine the notion of shared space. We are imagining new forms of spatiality, and consider various ways a subject may spatially position themself in relation to the world by exploring new types of posthuman agency. For this, we move from our ego-centric models of human agency in discrete manifolds--which are based on the reflection of the subject's inner world--toward new types of agents based on continuous manifolds, in which the ground comes from Outside.
Everything can be reconfigured. As the observers detach from inertial reference frames and the local perspectives, these local perspectives break into a multitude of different references and frames, and the locale expands from a central and discrete position through the continuity of woven strata of relations between separate locales. The nature of these interacting points can be rearranged and redefined, with torsions to the Outside. We can imagine new forms of spatiality, where there is no longer an interior and exterior or a given space. Our inquiry into the relation between subjectivity and spatiality will focus on various ways and methodologies.
During this interactive workshop, the researchers will create a model of posthuman agency that challenges how, as humans, we are locating ourselves in relation to other forces and dimensions, offering us a chance to renegotiate our position in relation to the world and bring about structural change through time-space reconfigurations.
Text by Sepideh Majidi
The participants may work under any of these frameworks or introduce/develop a new framework:
Starts May 9th
1. Neuroscience and cognitive machinery. (Reading Group May 14th)
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Malabou and Johnston.
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Ansermet and Magistretti.
2. Psychoanalysis: Considering various psychical structures, such as hysteria, obsessional neurosis, autism, phobia, schizophrenia, and paranoia." (Public Lecture- May 21 Alireza Taheri)
3. Study of continuous manifolds, such as Riemannian Spaces, Klein Bottles, Mobius Strips, etc., and new advancements in geometry and mathematics. Also, an introduction to Diagrams and Gestures. (Tool Box)
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Continuous manifolds (Riemann).
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Figuring Space Gilles Châtelet
4. Shamanism, Perspectivism:
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Perspectivism and Platforms (Contribution By Zé Antonio Magalhães, J.P. Caron, and Lukáš Likavčan
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Localization in Counterfactual Worlds: (Contribution By Patricia Reed)
5. Each artist and researcher can create a framework and a toolbox to add to this Shared space (constellation of reading groups)
At the end of the workshop, we can have two days of public presentations. (May 28th and May 29th)
We will announce more of the workshops soon with:
Natasha Vita-More
Stefan Lorenz Sorgner
Sami Khatib
and more