Robin Mackay – The Barker Topos (A Pitch)
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Superposing philosophical treatise / action thriller / site-specific work, surface will be read as symptom, and the investigator as already implicated in the contingencies of the plot, as new perspectives are opened up on the perennial philosophical question of how local and contingent phenomena focalize and express the universal â with the latter understood not as universal ratio or Hegelian Geist, but as the âuniversal history of material contingencyâ invoked in Deleuze and Guattariâs Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
What is called for is a combination of CSI: Earth (examining the terrestrial crime scene and making objects speak) and a Bourne Identity-style quest (a search for identities lost in an ever-deepening web of cosmic conspiracy): A new mode of investigation that combines Freud and Ferencziâs model of trauma and an abstraction of the âtime-travellingâ and narrative methods of psychoanalysis, with a reading of earth sciences and natural sciences as resources for a âcryptography of the earthâ inspired by but surpassing Nietzscheâs âgenealogyâ and Deleuze/Guattariâs âgeophilosophyâ.
Finding the thread or plot that leads from symptom to trauma, from crime scene to conspiracy, calls for a method that combines a formalisation of the trauma model both on local and global levels and a depth-tracking of the complicities involved (using mathematical category theory, sheaf theory and topos theory) with a multidisciplinary synthesis of modern sciences and philosophy. This new method enables us to formally define rigorous modes of navigation between global and local, and to elaborate criteria for distinguishing trivial from non-trivial plotlines (the good âleadâ from the bad).
The superficially commonplace crime scene is continually reframed by the navigation through ramified spaces of trauma, changing its aspect kaleidoscopically as the narrative brings into focus the different material distributions to which it belongs. With this twisted return of the ordinary (the simplicity of everyday life revealed as an encapsulated ramified path structure), theory attains an immanence with fictional affect, in the purportedly ineffable depth of metaphysical horror: As the protagonist repeatedly asks himself âwhere am I? Where did I come from? On what path am I moving?â, he finds himself set upon yet other paths, faced with broader landscapes of navigation, in too deep, unable to extricate himself from plots that reach far beyond the terrestrial sphere.
Robin Mackay is a philosopher and director of UK arts organization Urbanomic, which promotes research activities addressing crucial issues in philosophy and science and their relation to contemporary art practice, and aims to engender interdisciplinary thinking and production. His research interests focus on the âgapâ between scientific knowledge and humansâ spontaneous self- understanding, and the aesthetic and political ramifications of philosophical positions that attempt to resolve this disparity â in particular, new variants of âgeophilosophyâ, which negotiate the relationship between philosophical thought and the contingency history of the earth, in dialogue with geology, chemistry, and physics. As well as directing Urbanomicâs publishing operation and curatorial activities, Mackay is editor of Urbanomicâs publication Collapse: Journal of Philosophical Research and Development, each volume of which brings together philosophers, thinkers from other disciplines, and contemporary artists. He writes and speaks regularly on art and philosophy and has worked with several artists, including Florian Hecker, John Gerrard and Conrad Shawcross, developing cross-disciplinary projects. He has also translated various works of French philosophy, including Alain Badiouâs Number and Numbers, François Laruelleâs The Concept of Non-Photography and Anti-Badiou, and Quentin Meillassouxâs The Number and the Siren.
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The Matter of Contradiction is a series of workshops and seminars initiated by Sam Basu, Fabien Giraud, Ida Soulard and Tom Trevatt.
The Matter of Contradiction: War against the sun was organized in collaboration with Inigo Wilkins.
More informations can be found here: http://lamatiere.tumblr.com/
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War against the sun was held at Mute magazine offices at Limehouse Town Hall in London on the 1st and 2nd of March 2013 and followed by a workshop on the 3rd.
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Special thanks to Val Ravaglia and Stephen Nachtigall for the video recordings of the event.
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