Las grietas de lo contemporáneo

En aquest article em proposo meditar sobre l’art i la filosofia amb relació al temps. Vull pensar en allò que uneix art i filosofia en aquest sentit, que és un fet que considero de màxima importància (la seva finalitat comuna). Amb aquest objectiu, llegiré tres llibres en què aquesta estètica i aquesta filosofia del temps "succeeix": Divendres o els llimbs del Pacífic, de Michel Tournier, i 1Q84 i Kafka a la platja, ambdós de Haruki Murakami. Tinc la convicció que els tres llibres que m’ocupen poden materialitzar nombroses intervencions diferents en els conflictes econòmics, socials i polítics que conformen el present. I que, per consegüent, poden oferir-nos un món completament diferent del qual hem estat cecs fins ara. Un món en el qual, per algun motiu o altre, no hem tingut tirada a pensar anteriorment.In this paper, I want to think about art and philosophy in relation to time. I want to think about what art and philosophy have in common in that respect, which I consider to be something of the greatest importance (their common purpose). I do this by reading three books in which this aesthetics and this philosophy of time ‘happens’, namely Michel Tournier’s Friday and Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore. It is my belief that the three books in question are able to realise many different interventions in the economic, social and political entanglements that make up the present. And that they, consequently, are able to offer us a wholly different earth to which we had been blind. An earth that we, for some reason, were unable to think before.En este artículo me propongo meditar acerca del arte y la filosofía en relación con el tiempo. Quiero pensar en lo que une al arte y a la filosofía en este sentido, que es algo que considero de la máxima importancia (su finalidad común). Con este fin voy a leer tres libros en los que esta estética y esta filosofía del tiempo “sucede”: Viernes o los limbos del Pacífico, de Michel Tournier y 1Q84 y Kafka en la orilla, ambos de Haruki Murakami. Tengo la convicción de que los tres libros que me ocupan pueden materializar numerosas intervenciones diferentes en los conflictos económicos, sociales y políticos que conforman el presente. Y que, por consiguiente, pueden ofrecernos un mundo completamente diferente ante el cual hasta ahora hemos sido ciegos. Un mundo que, por algún motivo, éramos incapaces de pensar anteriorment

FOOD2GATHER: What is migrants’ food all about in Europe? A media discourse analysis through the lens of controversies

This report is part of the HERANET funded project FOOD2GATHER. The project aims at understanding the question of integration/exclusion of migrants through foodscapes. An important step in this direction is to analyse the contextual framework within which food-related practices, norms and values are embedded in European societies. Food controversies that have raised and have been reported in the media since the “2015 migrants’ crisis” across Europe can reveal important aspects related to such norms and values and indicate possible tensions and compromises. This report presents and discusses relevant food controversies that occurred in the six countries participating in the study (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and the Netherlands). This will generate a contextual overview of the integration/exclusion of migrants through foodscapes. Controversy has been used as a tool and a scanner. Each of the six FOOD2GATHER teams provided two relevant controversies that have reached media attention in the last ten years. One of the two had to be related to halal food. The analysis of the controversies has been conducted by identifying issues they tackled, agents they involved, (public) spaces and situations in which controversies took place and what they produced. A comparative analysis of relevant variables related to migrations, such as the geopolitical position of the countries, organization of reception and food provision, has been conducted as well. The six countries included in the study have different traditions related to migration and have been exposed to the “migrants’ crisis” in different ways. These differences are reflected in the proposed controversies. However, some common traits tend to emerge and reveal power relationships within societies that are different or shared by the countries involved in the project. We show that these power relationships particularly deal with the right to food, citizens’ commitment, identity, the place of religion, animal welfare and political issues. Our study indicates that analysing controversies adds an important dimension to the study of foodscapes. Food controversies that reach the media attention are seldom something migrants have brought up themselves. The migrants’ representation in the media based on food controversies indicated that migrants are given little opportunity to negotiating values and practices, as norms about “the right” quantity and quality of food tend to reproduce the food model of the country they migrate to, also when there is a “positive” focus on ethnic business. To better understand these dynamics, we propose the concept of “food encounters” and illustrate how the type of food encounters can play a role in how foodscapes could evolve or even emerge.Consumption Research Norway (SIFO), OsloMe

How landscapes remember

This paper considers the possibility that as subject or agent, the landscape might have the potential to contain, store or transmit memories of their past, which are engaged experientially as uncanny. In a simple sense it asks why there are some landscapes – or landscape features – that are regarded as spiritually animated by different social groups, at different times. The paper focuses on the Neolithic temple site of Borġ-in-Nadur, in Southern Malta, which as well as having been a site of prehistoric ritual activity has more recently been the site of a significant devotion to the Virgin Mary, who graced the site with regular apparitions, and a focus for national and transnational Goddess pilgrimage. The paper suggests that sites such as Borġ-in-Nadur can be seen as palimpsest landscapes, in which memory is layered such that experiential engagements with them draw the past in to the present, and forwards into the future. The paper examines the intertwining of prehistoric, Catholic and Neo-pagan engagements with Borġ-in-Nadur, extending Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de memoire (sites of memory) to encompass the milieux de memoire, or memorial environments, which are themselves also context of, and for, the uncanny

Les esquerdes d’allò contemporani

En aquest article em proposo meditar sobre l’art i la filosofia amb relació al temps. Vull pensar en allò que uneix art i filosofia en aquest sentit, que és un fet que considero de màxima importància (la seva finalitat comuna). Amb aquest objectiu, llegiré tres llibres en què aquesta estètica i aquesta filosofia del temps "succeeix": Divendres o els llimbs del Pacífic, de Michel Tournier, i 1Q84 i Kafka a la platja, ambdós de Haruki Murakami. Tinc la convicció que els tres llibres que m’ocupen poden materialitzar nombroses intervencions diferents en els conflictes econòmics, socials i polítics que conformen el present. I que, per consegüent, poden oferir-nos un món completament diferent del qual hem estat cecs fins ara. Un món en el qual, per algun motiu o altre, no hem tingut tirada a pensar anteriorment

The Cracks of the Contemporary

En aquest article em proposo meditar sobre l’art i la filosofia amb relació al temps. Vull pensar en allò que uneix art i filosofia en aquest sentit, que és un fet que considero de màxima importància (la seva finalitat comuna). Amb aquest objectiu, llegiré tres llibres en què aquesta estètica i aquesta filosofia del temps "succeeix": Divendres o els llimbs del Pacífic, de Michel Tournier, i 1Q84 i Kafka a la platja, ambdós de Haruki Murakami. Tinc la convicció que els tres llibres que m’ocupen poden materialitzar nombroses intervencions diferents en els conflictes econòmics, socials i polítics que conformen el present. I que, per consegüent, poden oferir-nos un món completament diferent del qual hem estat cecs fins ara. Un món en el qual, per algun motiu o altre, no hem tingut tirada a pensar anteriorment.In this paper, I want to think about art and philosophy in relation to time. I want to think about what art and philosophy have in common in that respect, which I consider to be something of the greatest importance (their common purpose). I do this by reading three books in which this aesthetics and this philosophy of time ‘happens’, namely Michel Tournier’s Friday and Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore. It is my belief that the three books in question are able to realise many different interventions in the economic, social and political entanglements that make up the present. And that they, consequently, are able to offer us a wholly different earth to which we had been blind. An earth that we, for some reason, were unable to think before.En este artículo me propongo meditar acerca del arte y la filosofía en relación con el tiempo. Quiero pensar en lo que une al arte y a la filosofía en este sentido, que es algo que considero de la máxima importancia (su finalidad común). Con este fin voy a leer tres libros en los que esta estética y esta filosofía del tiempo “sucede”: Viernes o los limbos del Pacífico, de Michel Tournier y 1Q84 y Kafka en la orilla, ambos de Haruki Murakami. Tengo la convicción de que los tres libros que me ocupan pueden materializar numerosas intervenciones diferentes en los conflictos económicos, sociales y políticos que conforman el presente. Y que, por consiguiente, pueden ofrecernos un mundo completamente diferente ante el cual hasta ahora hemos sido ciegos. Un mundo que, por algún motivo, éramos incapaces de pensar anteriorment

What is the Matter with Macao? Exploring A Materialist and Nomadic Theory of Game and Play

In contrast to the dominant ideas of how 'game and play' work, which I label 'transcendentalist' and 'sedentary', my study on Macao proposes an alternative, 'materialist' and 'nomadic', perspective. This comes down to thinking 'game and play' not as an 'artificial' activity that takes place in a safe, enclosed environment, but as an elementary part of life, crucial to how imagination works, and to how imagination is entangled in the materiality of the urban sphere. After mapping an alternative history of how to think 'game and play' differently, working with anthropologist Karl Goos, architect Aldo van Eyk, artist Constant, and in the end philosopher Gilles Deleuze, I engage with the city of Macao, its architecture, its politics, and its gambling practices. I use fiction authors Leslie T Chang and Louis Borges to show, finally, how Macao, in contemporary China, equals the infinite game of chance, materialized; the much needed other in its contemporary urban landscape

FOOD2GATHER – Negotiating Foodscapes: An Introduction

In this report, we introduce the ways in which our research team jointly works on the theoretical framework that is being developed in our FOOD2GATHER project. Starting from the idea that “Foodscapes” - which are central to our analysis- are the subject of our permanent negotiation, this project does not build on the oppositions between theory and practice, between researchers and researched or between migrant and host. Starting from the negotiation, our aim is to show in what way foodscapes are changing, and how these signals a Europe in change

This Deleuzian Century : Art, Activism, Life

According to Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) philosophy is not for the privileged few or the specialized ones: it is an activity that appeals to anyone who is attuned to the desire for the ethical life. Inspired by Spinoza’s concepts of desire and freedom, Deleuze’s ethical life is a life that aims at experimenting with sustainable ways of coping with the earth, with society, with the long term struggles and contemporary crisis that matter to us all. An ethical life defines thinking as the invention/intervention of new concepts and takes the risk of working with them in the real world. This book has been written in this spirit of free explorations of intensities. It explores the entanglements between art, activism and life in the service of training us to live ethically. Contrary to morality, which is the implementation of socially accepted rules and regulations, ethics requires an analysis of the power relations that structure our interaction as relational subjects, in order to enable us to deal with them. The original contributions presented in this volume aim to set these ideas to work in contemporary practices, exploring the ways in which Deleuze’s thought continues to be relevant at the start of the 21st century. As a product of the “Deleuze Circle”, an open collaboration between academics situated in the Low Countries started in 2008, the chapters in this book contribute to our ongoing conversations on how to live the ethical life today in academia, in art but above all in our multiple ecologies of belonging