We will

I’m corresponding with a certain Jen O about her prospective PhD here:

Her day job in marketing reminded me of an anecdote I’ve been meaning to post:

There once was was a workshop once that was run by our marketing/consultancy people. I think this was a rather dim excersize from no doubt excessively paid chancers, but we had fun at this workshop. They asked us to break into teams and brainstorm the five main themes of Goldsmiths mission/brand. Our group had to take the slogan – ‘Goldsmiths offers a transformatory experience’ and make it more ‘edgy’. Stage one we came up with ‘Goldsmiths will change the way you think’, which is OK and I’d been using a version of this for years in introductory talks for new students (I’ve another talk coming up on Opend Day wednesday 18th Feb). But we had to report back at this meeting in front of all the college heads of departments and other tops. All fine, the then head of finance was our designated feedback person, so – with him in a bow-tie – we had him stand up and announce to the assembled heads that our second stage radicalization of that slogan – ‘we will change the way you think’ was now ‘We will fuck with your head’. Much laughter and mock shock, credit to him for doing our bidding. Needless to say, our rewritten slogan for Goldsmiths was subsequently voted down and on the strapline and on the twee little lapel buttons they made as part of the ‘rebranding’ our slogan was not adopted. The badge instead says ‘radical’ – which is of course counter-indicative [but I could not find an image of that badge on line, so will scan it tomorrow maybe, in the meantime see the random badge pic generator to the left, and even better - see here for a better viral marketing move omn Goldies part].

Stiegler at Goldsmiths CCS Feb-march 09

*BERNARD STIEGLER *will give four lectures
Organised by: Centre For Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths
All welcome

4 February, 13.00-15.00
Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre
THE PROCESS OF EXTERIORIZATION AND THE EPIPYLOGENETIC MEMORY

11 February, 13.00-15.00
Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre
THE QUESTION OF THE PHARMAKON

25 February, 13.00-15.00
Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre
MNEMOTECHNICS AND GRAMMATISATION

4 March, 13.00-15.00
Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre
GRAMMATISATION, PHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS AT THE AGE OF INTERACTIVITY

Bernard Stiegler is a Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Cultural
Studies from 2009.

He is also a director of the department of cultural development  at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, and a professor at the University of Technology of Compiègne where he teaches philosophy. Before taking up the post at the Pompidou Center, he was program director at the International College of Philosophy, Deputy Director General of the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel, then Director General at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). Bernard Stiegler has published widely on philosophy, technology, digitization, capitalism, and consumer culture. Among his writings, his three volumes of /La Technique et Le Temps /(English Translation: /Technics and Time/), two volumes of /De La Misère Symbolique,/ three volumes of /Mécréance et Discrédit/ and two volumes /Constituer l’Europe/ are particularly well known. Professor Stiegler has a long term engagement with the relation between technology and philosophy, not only in a theoretical sense, but also situating them in industry and society as practices. He is one of the founders of the political group Ars Industrialis based in Paris, which calls for an industrial politics of spirit, by exploring the possibilities of the technology of spirit, to bring forth a new “life of the mind”. He published extensively on the problem of individuation in consumer capitalism, and he is  working on the new possibility of an economy of contribution.

Please reply to Dr. Olga Goriunova <o.goriunova[at]gold.ac.uk> for enquiries.

–
Dr. Olga Goriunova
Lecturer in Interactive Media
Centre for Cultural Studies
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross
London
SE14 6NW

[image from Dan Ross and David B's film The Ister].

Politics, Time and Theology 25.2.09

A Workshop on Giorgio Agamben’s ‘The Time That Remains’

Andrew Benjamin and Scott Lash.

Politics necessitates a thinking of the event; the event as a form of interruption that opens the space for another possibility. Equally politics brings with it questions of agency and subjectivity. The interconnection between the event and the subject continues to be expressed in terms of the relationship between universality and particularity. Contemporary philosophy continues to find resources that allow the issues raised by this complex of relations to be taken up in the theological writings of Paul.

Badiou, Derrida, Zizek, Taubes, Agamben amongst others have turned to Paul to continue to think through what might more generally be called a politics of time. The aim of this workshop will be to look in detail at one of these contemporary works, namely, Giorgio Agamben’s ‘The Time That Remains’ Stanford University Press (2005)

Event Information

Location: RHB Cinema, Goldsmiths
Cost: Free and all welcome
Website: Events at the Centre for Cultural Studies
Time: 25 February 2009, 15:00 - 17:00

Star Spangled Non-believers Rise Up!

I feel part of this, and then I dont. We were all included: jews, muslims, hindus, christians, ‘and non-believers’ (Obama 20.1.09). Though the phrasing parsed this as something of a an afterthought or hanging clause, it was about time an American president made a space for me, for I am a ‘non believer’. (On the same day of the speech I had used the phrase ‘god-botherers’ on a college website, but this was deemed unsuitable and edited. Ah well, at least I did not go for the term ‘bible-bashers’ – though I’d point out that neither phrase is disrespectful of ‘god’, but rather of bibles and prattlers. He who who don’t exist don’t get offended, only the fools who think he does, do [forgive my grammars & tresspass against us!]). Anyway, as tolerant freedom loving people [pah, relativists!] we have to consider things from a non-believers point of view: just as we would endorse any other ‘denomonational’ conviction or set of axioms.

So, to move this on past the rhetorical lists of inclusions, I turn to the question of nostalgia and look for explanations/speculation. Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me 44’s articulation of hope is a repackaging of pretty old dreams (King, Kennedy, Camalot … Lincoln, Gettysburg, Khe Sanh [!!! sheesh]). All this seems to return to the fable of a lost America, an America that still had unquestioned superpower status, a 50’s or 60’s America perhaps – yet all the while this nostalgia looks back at the past it does several things. It manages to be at the same time contrived, knowing, nostalgic and a forward march. This is somehow endearing, and productive in a weird, contentless way. I see it as something like Admiral Adama’s speeches in TV’s “Battlestar Galactica” (“lets find ‘earth’”) or how things turn out in Celebrity Dance shows where anyone who works hard and has poise, good looks and a very fine outfit can succeed (or be judged at least 2nd or 3rd runner up. Even Hillary gets a job – yay!). Sure, the fantasy of hope as tricked up nostalgia still inspires people to feel confident, capable and constituted – but it is also fragile. It relies on old glories (we saw such a lot of that old say can you see…) and it relies upon ‘resoluteness’, on ‘fortitude’ and ‘tenacity’. This sets up, for the mass of people who adopt its outlook, a dependence upon a precarious ‘confidence’ which, in its pernicious effect and whims, permeates the market from the stock exchange to the high street small business, and reaches even so far as to the countenance of people waiting for a bus. I swear Londoners today seemed less disgruntled… but still the market drops like a stone. The double play is underway, and its unclear which way the crumble is cooking… I’m still a non-believer.

Bengali Cinema and class

I was asked for recommendations of films on Class and Caste by Dipa for her course in LA.  Just a few very quick suggestions of the top of my head. I’ve no idea if these are readily available in Hollywood, but I’d expect they should be:

Bengali Films on class [and caste] would start with almost anything by Mrinal Sen (we screened a bunch of these at Goldsmiths last year):

Sen’s film “Kharij” is great for its critique of middle class life. He made this after his Calcutta revolution trilogy. Though I guess that’s more class politics than caste, of course it can also be seen that the boy is of lower caste as well. Its a pretty amazing film.

Or you might look at the films of Ritwik Ghatak, starting with Nagarik 1952, an early Marxist statement dealing with partition – predates Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali” by a few years, but not released till after Ritwik died of alcohol related illness.

Then – though not a Bengali film – there is that film about Ambedkar, more contemporary, glossy, but I recall thinking it pretty good. Read Gail Omvedt alongside the film.

Several films have been made of Mahasweta Devi novels to do with tribals and dalits. “Mother of 1084” I think is one that deserves attention. Obviously its Devi and Spivak who you’d read alongside this. My take here.

Burt

Alongside Barbara Stanwyck, my other fave mainstream movie star is Burt Lancaster (and though the woman on the beach in this still is, if you did not know, Deborah Kerr, Stanwyck and Lancaster teamed up together in “Sorry, Wrong Number” way back in 1948). As I am on a bit of a Burt tip this month, I watched “The Professionals” (1966) tonight. It is fantastic. Alongside his great “Crimson Pirate”, its one of the huge movies that show that the House Un-american Activities Commission (HUAC) really had a point, there were communists in Hollywood. Kaaabaaan! And it was a good thing too. More arty types might also enjoy Lancaster in Visconti’s very last film, “Conversation Piece” where Burt plays an aging Professor obsessed with trinkets. That kind of appealed to me too. What a trajectory – pirate – revolutionary – art dealer. Its a pity his involvement with the movie “Airport” ruined the run.