AAAARG http://aaaarg.org reading group Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:00:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Sculpture in the Expanded Field http://aaaarg.org/sculpture-in-the-expanded-field http://aaaarg.org/sculpture-in-the-expanded-field#comments Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:55:40 +0000 sean http://aaaarg.org/?p=2383 Did anyone go to the “Retracing the Expanded Field” conference at Princeton last fall? I’m curious what the results of “testing” the essay against the three decades that have come since it was written.

(I’m also posting this to test the new upload interface)

]]> http://aaaarg.org/sculpture-in-the-expanded-field/feed Sendoffs (for the Collège International de Philosophie) http://aaaarg.org/sendoffs-for-the-college-international-de-philosophie http://aaaarg.org/sendoffs-for-the-college-international-de-philosophie#comments Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:43:58 +0000 sean http://aaaarg.org/sendoffs-for-the-college-international-de-philosophie This text written in 1982 (as a report for the French government?) outlines a possible International College of Philosophy, which would be created the following year, not long after Mitterand’s election. It emphasizes intersections (like philosophy & art) rather than the individual disciplines. The operational discussions are also interesting (for example, the college is intended to exist outside of the University - and it still does today, I think). It’s a remarkably clear document and I think it’s fascinating what areas Derrida senses an urgency to research.

]]> http://aaaarg.org/sendoffs-for-the-college-international-de-philosophie/feed Collaborative Learning and the “Conversation of Mankind” http://aaaarg.org/collaborative-learning-and-the-conversation-of-mankind http://aaaarg.org/collaborative-learning-and-the-conversation-of-mankind#comments Fri, 30 May 2008 05:55:51 +0000 sean http://aaaarg.org/collaborative-learning-and-the-conversation-of-mankind Explanation of the concept of collaborative learning. Bruffee focuses mainly on teaching English, but the concept is essentially ‘group work’ and it manifests itself in all disciplines in different ways. His argument draws mainly from Thomas Kuhn (who died only months after Gordon Pask) and Richard Rorty.

]]> http://aaaarg.org/collaborative-learning-and-the-conversation-of-mankind/feed Heinz von Foerster’s Self-Organization, the Progenitor of Conversation and Interaction Theories http://aaaarg.org/heinz-von-foersters-self-organization-the-progenitor-of-conversation-and-interaction-theories http://aaaarg.org/heinz-von-foersters-self-organization-the-progenitor-of-conversation-and-interaction-theories#comments Fri, 30 May 2008 05:32:25 +0000 sean http://aaaarg.org/heinz-von-foersters-self-organization-the-progenitor-of-conversation-and-interaction-theories The last paper Gordon Pask wrote before his death in 1996. Very pretty text that is alternately scientific, poetic, and conversational.

]]> http://aaaarg.org/heinz-von-foersters-self-organization-the-progenitor-of-conversation-and-interaction-theories/feed Social Studies: A Conversation about Art and Social Engagement http://aaaarg.org/social-studies-a-conversation-about-art-and-social-engagement http://aaaarg.org/social-studies-a-conversation-about-art-and-social-engagement#comments Fri, 30 May 2008 00:22:13 +0000 sean http://aaaarg.org/social-studies-a-conversation-about-art-and-social-engagement “The following conversation took place over the internet and reads as part of a larger whole; its loose structure reflects a conversation still in process.” -from Shana Lutker’s introduction. More than 60 pages of conversation were concentrated down to about 7 pages for publication, resulting in many departures and few arrivals. From X-TRA Volume 10 Number 3.

]]> http://aaaarg.org/social-studies-a-conversation-about-art-and-social-engagement/feed Resignation http://aaaarg.org/resignation http://aaaarg.org/resignation#comments Sat, 24 May 2008 21:04:15 +0000 sean http://aaaarg.org/resignation The much invoked unity of theory and praxis has the tendency of slipping into the predominance of praxis… The forced primacy of praxis irrationally stopped the critique that Marx himself practiced.

Elsewhere in this argument for “thinking”, Adorno argues against “do it yourself,” calling it “pseudo-activity” that reduces political involvement to theater.

Zizek was recently on Democracy Now! and his closing statement he offers this defense of theory, which brought to mind Adorno’s text:

SLAVOJ ZIZEK: It will be simply—OK, maybe, the point that I always like to repeat: don’t beat—don’t get caught into a fake discourse of humanitarian emergency. Remember that when somebody is telling you, “You’re doing your theory. You are dreaming. But people are starving out there and so on. Let’s do something,” this is the threat. This is the threat.

Today’s hegemonic ideology is this kind of state of emergency ideology. What we need is to withdraw—don’t be afraid to withdraw and think. You know, Marx thesis eleven: philosophers have only interpreted the world; the time is, we have now to change it. Maybe, as good Marxists, we should turn it around. Maybe we are trying to change it too much. It’s time to redraw and to interpret it again, because do we really know what is going on today?

What is going on today? There are old fashion theories, either Marxist or liberals who claim the same capitalism is going on. Then there is a whole set of fashionable terms like post-industrial society, post-whatever, information society, which I think don’t do the job. We even don’t have what my friend Fred Jameson likes to call “cognitive mapping,” you know, that you get an idea what’s going on. We need theory more than ever. Don’t be—don’t feel guilty for withdrawing from immediate engagement and for trying to understand what’s going on.

In The Parallax View Zizek writes:

[Bartleby’s] “I would prefer not to” is to be taken literally: it says “I would prefernot to,” not “I don’t prefer (or care) to”—so we are back at Kant’s distinction between negative and infinite judgment. In his refusal of the Master’s order, Bartleby does not negate the predicate; rather, he affirms a non-predicate: he does not say that he doesn’t want to do it; he says that he prefers (wants) not to do it. This is how we pass from the politics of “resistance” or “protestation,”which parasitises upon what it negates, to a politics which opens up a new space outside the hegemonic position and its negation.

]]> http://aaaarg.org/resignation/feed The Rationality of Disagreement http://aaaarg.org/the-rationality-of-disagreement http://aaaarg.org/the-rationality-of-disagreement#comments Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:33:04 +0000 sean http://aaaarg.org/the-rationality-of-disagreement From Disagreement (published in 1995 and in English in 1999). Robert mentioned that this is the book to read and that this section contains the seed of his thinking about aesthetics (pages 57-59) within the context of his broader political project.

]]> http://aaaarg.org/the-rationality-of-disagreement/feed Myth Today http://aaaarg.org/myth-today http://aaaarg.org/myth-today#comments Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:21:08 +0000 sean http://aaaarg.org/myth-today This is the second section of Mythologies (or, not the Mythologies). From the Preface, Barthes explains the overall project of the book:

The starting point of these reflections was usually a feeling of impatience at the sight of the ‘naturalness’ with which newspapers,
art and common sense constantly dress up a reality which, even though it is the one we live in, is undoubtedly determined by
history. In short, in the account given of our contemporary circumstances, I resented seeing Nature and History confused at
every turn, and I wanted to track down, in the decorative display of what-goes-without-saying, the ideological abuse which, in my
view, is hidden there.

]]> http://aaaarg.org/myth-today/feed Aesthetics and Politics: Rethinking the Link http://aaaarg.org/aesthetics-and-politics-rethinking-the-link http://aaaarg.org/aesthetics-and-politics-rethinking-the-link#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:27:56 +0000 robt http://aaaarg.org/aesthetics-and-politics-rethinking-the-link http://aaaarg.org/aesthetics-and-politics-rethinking-the-link/feed The Politics of Aesthetics / The Aesthetics of Politics http://aaaarg.org/the-politics-of-aesthetics-the-aesthetics-of-politics http://aaaarg.org/the-politics-of-aesthetics-the-aesthetics-of-politics#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:25:42 +0000 robt http://aaaarg.org/the-politics-of-aesthetics-the-aesthetics-of-politics From 16 Beaver

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