SUMMER SCHOOL
JULY 1-12, 2014
HAUS DER KULTUREN DER WELT, BERLIN
EMANCIPATION AS NAVIGATION:
FROM THE SPACE OF REASONS TO THE
SPACE OF FREEDOMS
ORGANIZED BY : ARMEN AVANESSIAN , REZA N EGARESTANI , PETER W OLFENDALE
EVENT CONCEPT
If there is but one thread running between the
intellectual, political, and artistic dimensions of
modernity, it is undoubtedly the theme of
emancipation: from dogmatic frameworks
(enlightenment), inherited authorities
(egalitarianism), and stagnant expressive forms
(modernism). If there is but one legacy of
modernity that plays itself out in postmodernity, it is still undoubtedly the demand for
emancipation: from all overarching frameworks
(relativism), constituted authorities (activism),
and expressive constraints (postmodernism).
than enacts emancipation. This consists in an
effective suppression of value judgements (no
justice! no truth!) that is ultimately complicit
with the dominant strains of liberalism to which
it is often explicitly opposed. Far from being the
culmination of enlightenment egalitarianism,
these liberalisms are defined by the same
perverse refusal to conceptualise liberty as their
erstwhile opponents. That the debate between
these two trends is the mainstream discourse on
the legacy of modernity is perhaps the most
prominent symptom of post-modern malaise.
However, not only does this post-modern
inflection of emancipation sever its negative
moment (freedom from) from its positive
moment (freedom to), it jettisons the theoretical
resources needed to make sense of this
distinction. Afraid of reactivating the worst
aspects of enlightenment universalism
(colonialism), it systematically refuses any
unified concept of freedom, preferring to map
disparate if intersecting forms of oppression
(postcolonial-ism). There is nothing wrong with
this cartography of injustice, but the ‘lived
experience’ of oppression that it refuses to rise
above provides us with no practical orientation
within the space of possibilities and constraints
it describes: there is no corresponding concept
of justice, and thus no emancipatory vector.
Nevertheless, the relentless commitment to
tracing the local conditions of thought and action
that this antipathy represents must be respected,
analysed, and ultimately incorporated by any
attempt to revive the emancipatory themes of
modernity (post-colonialism). The reactivation
of enlightenment universalism can no longer
safely ignore the particular by turning toward
the universal, but must aim to trace trajectories
that pass from the local to the global. It is on this
basis that we must reconceive emancipation in
navigational terms, supplementing the parochial
cartography of injustice not only with our most
abstract resources for analysing space, but with
a willingness to treat these resources as
constituting their own abstract spaces. This is to
say that the resurrection of universalism as an
emancipatory vector is oriented by a renewed
commitment to rationalism, and that the
relationship between local and global is
elaborated by means of a movement from
abstract to concrete spaces: from the space of
reasons to the space of freedoms.
Though this antipathy to (and perhaps fear of)
the positive content of modernity is principally
political, it has colonised the intellectual and
artistic domains, coalescing into a pervasive
cultural negativity that more often obstructs
METHOD
The overall trajectory of this series of seminars
follows this path from the abstract to the
concrete, aiming to work out the significance of
the relationship between the local and the global
within five successive domains: mathematics,
language, history, politics, and literature/art.
This will result in a progressively more concrete
picture of ‘emancipation as navigation’, moving
between different complementary disciplinary
viewpoints. By emphasizing the link between
cognitive and practical technologies,
hypothetical construction, abductive
conceptualization and freedom, the series
addresses both the history of reason and the
future of an emancipatory rationalist project in
terms of the construction of new prospects of
cognitive and practical procedures. It will
examine how the space of human possibility is
continually reorganized through the invention of
new operators that detach thought and action
from their local conditions.
The seminars are organized in a way that they
re-enact the systematic game of navigation.
Specific problems are broken down into different
sets of parameters which are then analyzed
under disciplinary constraints before they are
re-structured as points of entry into other
domains. The transversal mobilization of
knowledge-bases requires development of new
intermediating perspectives and modes of
knowledge transport — in short, technologies
for the liberation of thought and practice from
their immediate conceptual resources and
applicational contexts. In this fashion, the
ramifications of making theoretical or practical
commitments in one field are unfolded and
explored in another disciplinary domain.
Problems and challenges arising from these
transports across domains are subsequently
used to inform and reorient original problems or
alternatively, serve as new hypotheses for
exploring the problem and its ramifications
further. In practice, this navigational ideal will be
realised by a collaborative process of conceptual
mapping, wherein the crucial concepts and their
connections are traced both within and between
seminars with the help of all participants.
EVENT FORMAT
PARTICIPANTS:
APPLICATION :
10 Seminar Leaders and 30 Others.
People interested in participating in the seminar
series must submit an application for
involvement, including a short bio and statement
of interests, no more than 300 words, no later
than the 30th May, to
pete.wolfendale@gmail.com. Participants will
be informed within one week from the deadline.
KEY TOPICS :
Freedom, Reason/Logic,
Mathematics/Abstraction,
Navigation/Representation,
Semiotics/Linguistics, Modernity/Colonialism,
Politics, Intersectionality, Feminism,
Technology/Design, Art, Accelerationism,
Cosmism.
SCHEDULE:
Two weeks beginning on July 1st and finishing on
July 12th, with a day off on Sunday July 6th. Each
day will consist of two three-hour sessions (9am
to 12pm / 2pm to 5pm). The first part of each
session will be taken up by a presentation by
that day’s seminar leader, before being given
over to responses and general discussion.
PREPARATION:
Participants will be expected to read a certain
amount of compulsory material for each seminar
(around 30 pages), which will be made available
in the form of a compiled reader a month in
advance. Additional reading suggestions will also
be provided.
ORGANIZERS :
Armen Avanessian (Philosopher/Editor:
Poetics, Literary Theory, Art), Berlin
Reza Negarestani (Philosopher: Rationality,
Navigation, Functionalism), New York
Pete Wolfendale (Philosopher: Rationality,
Language, Freedom), Sunderland
SEMINAR LEADERS:
Anke Hennig (Literary Theorist: Linguistics,
Media Theory), Berlin
Benedict
Singleton
(Philosopher
of
Design/Strategist:
Technology,
Cunning,
Platforms), London
Deneb Kozikoski (Literary Theorist: Science,
Modernity, Anti-Eurocentrism), New York
Lucca
Fraser
(Philosopher/Logician:
Mathematics, Desire, Gender), Halifax
Helen Hester (Cultural Theorist: Sex and
Gender, Media, Feminism), London
Nick Srnicek (Political Theorist: Technology,
Economics, Post-Capitalism), London
James Trafford (Philosopher/Art Theorist:
Rationality, Logic, Aesthetics), London
PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME
DAY
PRINCIPAL
SPEAKERS
FIRST SESSION
SECOND SESSION
Tuesday, July 1st
Reza Negarestani
The Matheme of Navigation
Engineering through Navigation
Wednesday, July
2nd
Pete Wolfendale
Freedom and Reason
Navigation and Representation
1st Evening Event
Panel: Avanessian,
Negarestani, et. al.
Escape Velocity: Navigating
Speculative Realism
Thursday, July 3rd
Armen Avanessian Signs and Language
and Anke Hennig
Poesis and Linguistics
Friday, July 4th
Deneb Kozikoski
Modernity at the Frontier
Navigability and Metamorphoses
Saturday, July 5th
Nick Srnicek
The Critique of Folk-Politics
The Future of the Left
Monday, July 7th
Lucca Fraser
Universality as Intersectionality
Intersectionality as Genericity
Tuesday, July 8th
Helen Hester
Feminism and Technology After
Firestone
Re-Engineering Embodiment
Wednesday, July
9th
Benedict Singleton Design as Metic Reason
Cosmism as Generalised
Escapology
Thursday, July 10th James Trafford
Aesthetic Abstraction
Conceptual Abstraction
Friday, July 11th
General Discussion
Creativity, Innovation, and
Emancipation
Expression, Conception, and
Navigation
2nd Evening Event
Panel: Avanessian,
Negarestani, et. al.
Emancipating the Concept of
Freedom
Saturday, July 12th
General Discussion
Navigating the Space of Reasons
Navigating the Space of Freedoms
The Summer School is realized in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt und merve Verlag