Memory, History, and Pluripotency: A Realist View of Literary Studies

Speculative realism has, over the course of its rapid and controversial emergence in the past decade, been frequently criticized from the perspective of historical materialism, for its putative reliance on abstraction and eschewal of a sufficiently rigorous ideological alignment. This paper takes such critiques as a starting point for an examination of the contributions recent thought in the area of speculative realism has to offer the study of the humanities – specifically, the study of literature and literary history. In particular, contemporary realist thought has the potential to enable scholars of literature to move beyond the anthropocentric and specialized notions of history as an exclusively cultural entity, which have dominated the discipline since the twentieth century. Paying especially close attention to the work of Graham Harman and Manuel DeLanda, it is my argument that emergent realist philosophy offers literary scholars a set of powerful conceptual tools which can be put toward the work of accounting for the hitherto neglected ontological status of the literary text – illuminating the status of the text as a particular variety of real and physical object that participates in a system of real and physical history and memory

Emergencia, causalidad y realismo

L'origen del concepte modern d'emergència es remunta a la meitat del segle xix, quan els filòsofs realistes es van començar a plantejar per primera vegada les profundes similituds que hi havia en els camps de la física i la química entorn de la qüestió de la causalitat. L'exemple clàssic de causalitat que ofereix la física és el d'una col·lisió entre dues molècules o altres objectes rígids en la qual l'efecte global és una simple suma. Però quan dues molècules interactuen químicament, emergeix un ens completament nou, com quan l'hidrogen i l'oxigen interactuen i formen l'aigua. Hi havia la creença que el fet que emergissin propietats i capacitats noves a partir d'una interacció causal tenia importants implicacions filosòfiques per a la naturalesa de l'explicació científica. Concretament, l'absència de la novetat en les interaccions físiques significava que l'explicació dels seus efectes es podia reduir a una deducció a partir de lleis o principis generals. Tanmateix, la síntesi de l'aigua sí que produeix una cosa nova, una cosa que emergeix a partir d'ens que interactuen com a causes. Això va portar alguns filòsofs a l'errònia conclusió que els efectes emergents no es poden explicar, o, cosa que és el mateix, que un efecte només serà emergent mentre no s'hagi trobat la llei de la qual es dedueix. Aquesta línia de pensament va passar a convertir-se, a començaments del segle xx, en una filosofia completament desenvolupada, una filosofia basada en la idea que l'emergència era intrínsecament inexplicable. Aquest article afirma que, encara que la primera onada de filòsofs emergentistes va aconseguir veure que el concepte d'emergència era una poderosa manera de bloquejar el reduccionisme i , per tant, d'atorgar a altres camps diferents de la física el respecte que es mereixien, es van equivocar pel que fa a la seva inexplicabilitat inherent: les propietats emergents d'un tot sorgeixen a partir de les interaccions causals entre les seves parts, interaccions que constitueixen un mecanisme explicatiu d'aquestes propietats.The origin of the modern concept of emergence can be traced to the mid-nineteenth century, when realist philosophers first began to ponder the deep dissimilarities between causality in the fields of physics and chemistry. The classic example of causality in physics is a collision between two molecules or other rigid objects in which the overall effect is a simple addition. However, when two molecules interact chemically, an entirely new entity may emerge, as when hydrogen and oxygen interact to form water. The fact that novel properties and capacities emerge from a causal interaction was believed to have important philosophical implications for the nature of scientific explanation. In particular, the absence of novelty in physical interactions meant that explaining their effects could be reduced to deduction from general principles or laws. However, the synthesis of water does produce something new, something that emerges from the interacting entities acting as causes. This led some philosophers to the erroneous conclusion that emergent effects could not be explained, or, what amounts to the same thing, that an effect is emergent only so long as a law from which it can be deduced has not been found. This line of thought went on to become a full-fledged philosophy in the early twentieth century, based on the idea that emergence was intrinsically inexplicable. This essay argues that while the first wave of emergentist philosophers correctly saw that the concept of emergence was a powerful way to block reductionism and, therefore, to give fields other than physics their due respect, they were wrong about its inherent inexplicability: the emergent properties of a whole arise from the causal interactions between its parts, and these interactions constitute an explanatory mechanism for those properties.El origen del concepto moderno de emergencia se remonta a mitad del siglo xix, cuando los filósofos realistas empezaron por primera vez a plantearse las profundas similitudes que existían en los campos de la física y la química en torno a la cuestión de la causalidad. El ejemplo clásico de causalidad que ofrece la física es el de una colisión entre dos moléculas u otros objetos rígidos en la que el efecto global es una simple suma. Pero cuando dos moléculas interactúan químicamente, emerge un ente completamente nuevo, como cuando el hidrógeno y el oxígeno interactúan y forman el agua. Se creía que el hecho de que emergieran propiedades y capacidades nuevas a partir de una interacción causal tenía importantes implicaciones filosóficas para la naturaleza de la explicación científica. En concreto, la ausencia de la novedad en las interacciones físicas significaba que la explicación de sus efectos podía reducirse a una deducción a partir de leyes o principios generales. Sin embargo, la síntesis del agua sí produce algo nuevo, algo que emerge a partir de entes que interactúan como causas. Esto condujo a algunos filósofos a la errónea conclusión de que los efectos emergentes no pueden explicarse, o, lo que es lo mismo, que un efecto sólo será emergente mientras no se haya encontrado la ley de la cual se deduce. Esta línea de pensamiento pasó a convertirse, a principios del siglo xx, en una filosofía completamente desarrollada, una filosofía basada en la idea de que la emergencia era intrínsecamente inexplicable. Este artículo sostiene que, aunque la primera ola de filósofos emergentistas acertó a ver que el concepto de emergencia era una poderosa manera de bloquear el reduccionismo y, por lo tanto, de otorgar a otros campos diferentes de la física el respeto que estos se merecían, se equivocaron acerca de su inherente inexplicabilidad: las propiedades emergentes de un todo surgen a partir de las interacciones causales entre sus partes, interacciones que constituyen un mecanismo explicativo de esas propiedades

The Nonhuman Lives of Videogames

Videogames are not subjects to be operated on, but rather bodies that humans live both with and inside of. In order to reconcile human existence with this nonhuman life, this thesis looks to evaluate the exact relationships developed between humans and assemblages in order to understand how humans are disciplined to return to games time and time again. The recognition of the nonhuman life of videogames necessitates a rethinking of the word “life,” as well as a reformulation of ethics around the new sets of obligations humans have toward videogames if we begin to recognize them as alive

Mineralising Software: Moving Through Material Processes

Introducing the notion of ‘mineralisation’ as a conceptual tool taken from Manuel DeLanda and applied in the context of software, this article investigates the mineral origins of software and how to engage in mapping the vibrancy of software through new material practices

Subject to Change

Subject to Change is comprised of a series of self-devised, ritually practiced free-associative action-mark-making strategies. Each procedure explores various degrees of chance operations and seeks to question and explore the roles of intuition, intention, interpretation and human participation. A hybrid of fixed method with variables of the unknown explores and investigates performative mark-making methodologies, in-person and internet collaboration, control and working under pre-fixed intervals. Alongside chance, time-based procedures are concurrently determined to achieve work on paper whose marks are not initially foreseen. This practice of working addresses the disconnect between the maker engaged in active activity of doing versus the relative stagnancy of the resulting end product. There is a relationship of tension between the realized end product and the formulas which created them in terms of which components possess relevance. Repetitively practiced actions of activity attempt to unite conventional modes of art production with routinely practiced everyday structured studio activity. Heavily influenced by the scientific method, art-by-instruction and process art, the work aims to capture the conflicting elements of predetermined activity and variables and free-associative mark-making. The chance operations in the work consist of: the rolling of dice, the blind spinning of dials, the selection from a deck of cards, and solicited participation of people from social media. Through drawing, printmaking and mixed media, the works possess a strong reference to their materiality and the passage of time as seen through change, evolution or degradation

“Deterritorializing the Canadian Museum for Human Rights”

 This article explains the value of assemblage theory to making sense of a museum like the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR), which has struggled with the formidable challenge of comparatively representing human rights in controversial cultural and historical contexts. I argue that “assemblage thinking” permits us to appreciate more richly the way in which the expressive power of the CMHR arises from the dynamic interaction/intersection of overlapping clusters of objects, spaces, ideologies, memories, feelings, structures, histories, and experiences.  Understood as “assemblages,” these clusters in important (but not all) ways lie beyond the scope of formal agency such as that exercised by curators and museum administrators. Accordingly, we must understand museums generally, and the CMHR particularly, as fundamentally unable guarantee the integrity and perdurability of their/its own structures and meanings, and recognize these meanings (and a museum’s identity) as irreducibly open-ended and provisional.

Territorial assemblages simulation for territorial intelligence

International audienceThe following article is based on the theory of assemblage ontology seen as a framework to formalize new projects territories in a perspective of territorial intelligence. The area of research is PARIS-SACLAY Campus, which views the development of a world science cluster. The assemblages are simulating by means of simplicial complexes. Its objective is to offer new decision-making tools to territorial community

Edmund Kean’s Celebrity: Assemblage Theory and the Unintended Consequences of Audience Density

This essay will examine theatrical celebrity in early 19th-century England with particular reference to the actor Edmund Kean (1787-1833) and his first season at Drury Lane, 1813-14. His ground-breaking interpretation of Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice brought him overnight success. Using Manuel DeLanda’s assemblage theory as its main predictive model, the essay argues that celebrity is a category conferred by audience density. Archival records of Drury Lane’s financial receipts, pay rates for actors and actresses, and names of individual occupants of box seats (including the novelist, Jane Austen) all provide sets of economic data which can chart financial aspects of celebrity. In short, in that first season Kean was only a middle to upper ranking employee as far as his remuneration was concerned. Furthermore, due to an over-extended season to capitalize on his celebrity, Drury Lane’s receipts were 8% down on the previous year

Vital Materialism, Thing Power, & Political Ecologies of Fecal Dust

The thesis appropriates the Vital Materialist thought of political theorist Jane Bennett working in the philosophy of new materialism. Informed by a Deleuzian tradition, Bennett’s reading of Spinoza cements an understanding of materiality as lively and vibrant, wherein things demonstrate a thing-power along lines of effect that correspond to inert tendencies of persistence and activity in the object itself. This account of physical matter as vibrant, or lively, accommodates a distributed image of agency; that is to say, vital materialism seeks to take seriously the political activity and power of non-human bodies within an ecology, interrogating a traditionally anthropocentric privileging of ‘the human’ in ontology and metaphysics. A distributed image of agency rewrites traditional discourses on political thought and political problem-posing. The thesis contests that distributed agency in the form of an assemblage structure pulls politics out of prototypically human concerns—where political thought can become constipated with questions of permissibility, responsibility, and culpability—and towards an account of political thought that rests in the relationships between humans and non-human physical actants. The unique political ecology of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and their surrounding communities provides a useful scenario for analyzing the ways in which emergent causality and conatus are better suited for political analysis than traditional models of thought. In this framework we can seriously consider the political liveliness and impacts of cattle fecal dust, pollutants, chemical run-off and various other non-human bodies within the framework of a political ecology

Data-Driven Design to Production and Operation

Digital technology has introduced in the last decades data-driven representational and generative methodologies based on principles such as parametric definition and algorithmic processing. In this context, the 15th Footprint issue examines the development of data-driven techniques such as digital drawing, modelling, and simulation with respect to their relationship to design. The data propelling these techniques may consist of qualitative or quantitative values and relations that are algorithmically processed. However, the focus here is not on each technique and its respective representational and generative aspects, but on the interface between these techniques and design conceptualisation, materialization, and use