Tony D. Sampson’s response

It was just recently that I found out that Tony D. Sampson, the author of Virality: Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks, has written a response to my review of the book – as it appeared in the previous issue of Parallax. The response is surely interesting and thought-provoking. In a brief reaction to the criticism it puts forward, I would like to emphasize that if it accuses me of mis-reading the book, the whole point of my review was that, as a reader of the book, I was (too) easily led to mis-read it. Be that as it may, I was honored to read Sampson’s response and I will try to come to grasps with his comments.

 

[update] Flows, fluxes and monads: the conceptual madness of experimental social ontology

In lieu of further Simondon developments (see post below)…My review-essay on Tony Sampson’s Virality has been published today in the new issue of Parallax.

Update: the review-essay has been made available for download (maximum of 50). Please click here

The Anthropocene Project

This sounds interesting: the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin is organizing an event called ‘The Anthropocene Project’ which takes as its core statement the ‘Anthropocene thesis, announcing a paradigm shift in the natural sciences as well as providing new thought models for culture, politics and everyday life [..] The basis for the Anthropocene as our current geological epoch rests on the claim that humankind is the driving power behind planetary transformation’.

Speakers include artists, theoreticians etc. such as Rem Koolhaas, Lorraine Daston and John Law.

More on the event here.

Latour video on The Modes of Existence project

A video of Bruno Latour elaborating on his new ‘An Inquiry Into Modes of Existence’.

ANTHEM

“The Modes of Existence project: an exercise in collective inquiry and digital humanities” – by Bruno Latour, 6 November 2012.

Understanding Society Lecture Series, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge

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Society and Space on Occupy

Society and Space asked some theorists/scholars to reflect on the ‘Occupy’ movement. Where the ‘Beursplein demonstrators’ in Amsterdam seemed to cause a big stir in the Netherlands, the movement seems to be in need of some support from prominent intellectuals to keep up the momentum – the fact that a few days ago a tramconductor, while approaching Dam Square, called the spot where Occupy is demonstrating ‘campsite Occupy’ says it all, at least when it comes to the expectations of the public..The fact that Occupy ‘does not come up with an alternative’ seems to be today’s politics of the actual, and reinforces Adorno’s remark in Dialectic of Enlightenment that the tabooing of any thought which does not set out from ‘brute actuality’ serves as a legitimation for a, seemingly, unending passivity.

Ananya Roy ‘Occupy the Future’
Juliet Fall ‘Translations in the City’
Eduardo Mendieta ‘Occupy: To Dwell in the Space of Attentive Solicitude’

Collapse Vol. II

Collapse Volume II is available online. As it is put on their website;  “This groundbreaking volume from 2007 introduced the words ‘Speculative Realism’ into the lexicon, with the first published translation of work by Quentin Meillassoux (the essay ‘Potentiality and Virtuality’), Ray Brassier’s commentary and critique of Meillassoux, and essays by Reza Negarestani and Graham Harman, along with fascinating interviews with theoretical cosmologist Roberto Trotta and Neurophilosopher Paul Churchland, and work by artist Kristen Alvanson and filmmakers Clémentine Duzer and Laura Gozlan.”

Paul Ennis’ Continental Realism

Really looking forward to read Paul Ennis’ new book, Continental Realism (published by Zero books). Hope it succeeds in providing the much needed introduction to this vibrant field.

Material Junkspace

Just when the longest strike in the Netherlands (6 weeks) since 1933 has come to a close – connecting the government, the Dutch railways, angry and sympathetic citizens, an ethical discussion about bonuses and trade unions by making TRASH visible – I found a book by Greg Kennedy named ‘The Ontology of Trash’. It’s a rather wonderful book in all its quietness, since Kennedy simply asks himself: ‘So many objects of our daily lives know but a fleeting presence. What does it mean that much, if not most, of our ordinary commerce with the world involves destruction?‘ And that’s just what the fierce strikers did; making visible the meaning of trash and, most of all, the importance of its disappearance for our modern life. I hope to add a link to the book very soon.

Start a New Art World: Ad de Jong

Ad de Jong presents new work under the heading ‘Receiving Radiant Spaces’ at Annette de Keyser Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium