Archive for the ‘Peter Sloterdijk’ Category
27 April 2009
What does it mean in the life of an intellectual movement (in this case actor-network theory or speculative realism) when it repeatedly gets the comedy treatment? Does it signify higher status and greater recognition? There certainly have to be enough people out there who get the joke for it to work. First there was the Latour-Sloterdijk comics series by KLAUS from Harvard. Then there was the hilarious album cover for the speculative realists by Mike Watson from Goldsmiths. And now here is a ‘Bruno Latour as Rush Limbaugh’ spoof from students at Brigham Young University. It is quite entertaining, while giving a pretty good summary of Latour’s book, The Pasteurization of France.
Listen to the “Rush Latour Show” here (19 min):
Update (29 April 2009): And we could add to this collection the Bruno Latour action figure from the thing theory blog (which, by the way, contains some great reflections on the whole Heidegger-Latour relationship and some rave reviews of Harman’s Prince of Networks manuscript) by Columbia University students.
Tags:Brigham Young University, Columbia University, Goldsmiths, Rush Limbaugh, The Pasteurization of France
Posted in Actor-network-theory, Audio recordings, Books, Bruno Latour, Peter Sloterdijk, philosophy, Science Studies, speculative realism | 1 Comment »
26 February 2009
It was interesting to observe that Heidegger was very much present in both Sloterdijk and Latour’s talk during their recent joint appearance at Harvard. For Sloterdijk, it was a matter of building on Heidegger positively, by “explicitating” Heidegger’s notion of being-in. As Latour quipped, for Sloterdijk “Dasein is design,” and explicitation means rendering the material aspects of being human visible. Thus Sloterdijk shows that being-in for humans means living in bubbles, in a world that looks like foam — marvellously refreshing metaphors for facilitating a new way of imagining sociality. A host of biological and evolutionary themes were also evoked, often resulting in startling observations, such as describing women’s bodies as “architectural units” and “apartments” for “interiorising the egg.” Sloterdijk drew parallels between evolutionary biological processes and architecture, claiming that “humans are pets,” i.e. “the effects of the space they create.” He did have a few very funny lines, aided by his deadpan delivery.
(more…)
Tags:climate change, explicitation, globalisation, globalization, Peter Sloterdijk
Posted in Actor-network-theory, Bruno Latour, Martin Heidegger, Peter Sloterdijk, philosophy, politics, Social theory, Sociology | 1 Comment »
9 February 2009
Check out this fantastic special issue of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space: “The Worlds of Peter Sloterdijk,” guest-edited by Stuart Elden, Eduardo Mendieta, and Nigel Thrift. Besides the translations of three different pieces by Sloterdijk, it carries a number of very interesting essays, including one by Marie-Eve Morin entitled “Cohabitating in the Globalised World: Peter Sloterdijk’s Global Foams and Bruno Latour’s Cosmopolitics.” Morin shows how Sloterdijk develops Heidegger’s concept of spatiality, and she connects it with Latour’s thinking on politics. Just the thing to read before Latour and Sloterdijk’s joint talk at Harvard next week. And this is yet another ANT-Heidegger connection…
Tags:Eduardo Mendieta, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Marie-Eve Morin, Nigel Thrift, Stuart Elden
Posted in Actor-network-theory, Bruno Latour, Martin Heidegger, Peter Sloterdijk, philosophy, politics | Leave a Comment »
6 February 2009
Many thanks to Trevor Patt for alerting us that there is going to be a joint Latour-Sloterdijk event after all, on 17 February 2009, at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University (6:30pm – 8:00pm, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall). It will be entitled “Networks and Spheres: Two Ways to Reinterpret Globalization.”
Tags:globalisation, globalization, Harvard University, Peter Sloterdijk
Posted in Actor-network-theory, Bruno Latour, design, Peter Sloterdijk, philosophy, Social theory | 6 Comments »
30 January 2009
OK, not actually on the same day… Besides appearing at the “The Changing Dynamics of Public Controversies” event, Bruno Latour will also give a public talk entitled “Globalization: Which Globe? Which Politics?” at the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University on Thursday, 5 February 2009, starting at 6:15pm. Peter Sloterdijk will give a talk on how ”You Must Change Your Life,” also at the Heyman Center, at 6:15pm on Thursday, 19 February 2009.
Tags:Columbia University, Heyman Center, New York, Peter Sloterdijk
Posted in Actor-network-theory, Bruno Latour, Peter Sloterdijk, philosophy, politics, Social theory, STS | 1 Comment »
31 August 2008
What is the connection? Well, at least for the next week it is the town of Falmouth in Cornwall. The Networks of Design conference (3-6 September 2008) will feature Bruno Latour as keynote speaker and actor-network theory as a major theme. Falmouth is also the home of Urbanomic, the publisher of Collapse, the journal which continues to bring to us original work by members of the speculative realism group.
Update (7 September 2008): A copy of Bruno Latour’s keynote speech, “A Cautious Promethea? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design (with Special Attention to Peter Sloterdijk)” [PDF], is now available from his website.
Tags:Collapse, design, Falmouth, Networks of Design, Peter Sloterdijk, speculative realism, Urbanomic
Posted in Actor-network-theory, Bruno Latour, Conferences, Peter Sloterdijk, philosophy, Social theory, STS | Leave a Comment »
