Symbolic Misery and Aesthetics- Bernard Stiegler

In this article I will deal with the development of a theory of aesthetics within the work of the French contemporary philosopher Bernard Stiegler with particular reference to his concept of symbolic misery. Rather than give an extensive account of Bernard Stiegler’s aesthetics this article will focus on some key concepts mobilized in the definition and analysis of symbolic misery. Firstly, I will argue that Stiegler’s understanding of the aesthetic comes from an expanded notion of aesthesis, where the political and the aesthetic are mobilized together. In this regard I will interrogate some key concepts in his work Symbolic Misery (2004, 2014) which sets out the diagnosis of the impoverishment of the aesthetic which Stiegler identifies with our current epoch. The impoverishment Stiegler identifies has its sources in a mechanical turn which has led to a proletarianisation of knowledge and a process of disindividuation. This analysis of regression is based on an expansion of the concept of individuation from the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon and the development of the concept of organology. Thirdly, this article will attempt to explore the remedy to symbolic misery which Stiegler seeks in the work of Joseph Beuys: participation becomes the central tenant, a participation which enables the re-engagement with the symbolic. This article argues that the choice of Beuys, as the example of this type participatory practice, is in itself problematic

Formative Feedback

This assessment method is an opportunity for formative feedback. Students are given an essay title in Week 1, with a 500 word submission due in Week 6 or 7. Feedback is given without a mark

Pharmacologies of Texts and Images

The problematic of Ekphrasis will be the central tenant of this paper, a relationship between text, language and image. Ekphrasis broadly understood as the relationship between images and words, however, in the case of this paper it will be taken to mean the relationship between words and images in relation to memory. Bernard Stiegler’s work has become well renowned in relation to his exploration of texts and in particular the relationship between texts and technology; an intimate relationship, if writing is to be considered as a form of technology, a mnemonic form. However, there is also another aspect in the work of Bernard Stiegler, which to date has not been fully explored, the role of the image as a placeholder for memory. By examining the proposition that writing functions as a pharmakon, and that a positive pharmacology is possible this paper will attempt to posit the question of images as a pharmacology. Bernard Stiegler has become prominent within debates in critical theory in media and Critical Theory studies in the last number of years. His development of an approach to technology as, firstly, an innately human activity and, secondly, his extension of the work of both Jacques Derrida and Georges Simondon have led to the establishment of a key concept in Bernard Stiegler’s philosophy : Pharmacology. This paper will firstly give an overview of the development of what Bernard Stiegler has termed a positive pharmacology and secondly scope the relationship between pharmacology and the image. In Plato’s Phradeus writing is considered a poison, a mechanical placeholder for memory and not true memory, the rejection of wiring by Plato is founded upon a distinction between memory as mechanical repetition, hypomnesis and memory as access to the truth, anamnesis. Writing for Plato is not a form of anamnesis but a form of hypomnesis. Derrida’s well known text, Plato’s Pharmacy develops a detailed critique of Plato’s understanding of writing as a pharmakon, however whilst Derrida exploits the semantic ambiguity of writing as a pharmakon, as a cure and a poison, he never details how the curative aspects of the pharmakon might be established. The revisiting of Plato’s Pharamacy enables Stiegler to develop both a criticism of Plato and of Derrida. The contention that Plato dismisses wirting as a form of pharmakon, cure and poison, by stating that writing is a form of hypomnesis, a form of automatic memory or regurgitation, is revisited and Stiegler’s analysis leads to a reappraisal of writing as a form of placeholder for memory. Stieglers develops a positive pharmacology through positing relations between anamnesis and hypomnesis, hypomnesis enables anamnesis. Meno’s slave is literate, the slave can read and this enables the philosophical reflection to take place. Therefore, the relationship between anamnesis and hypomnesis is not an exclusive relationship for Stiegler, writing functions as a placeholder for memory but also a means of access to alethea, writing enables reflection to take place. However, in this famous passage from the Phradreus where Plato is said to reject writing, this paper will argue that the reference to image in the text poses a particular problematic, according to Plato words and images continue to say the same thing forever. Writing and Images both function as a form of pharmakon as placeholders for memory. This paper will argue that images are according to Stiegler placeholders, the have a hypomnesic function. The image functions not only a placeholder for memory, a tertiary retention but also according to Stielger as a form of transindividuation. Stiegler developing on from the work of Georges Simondon posits writing as technology and as form of individuating, a form of transindividuation. There is a circuit of transindividuation, where the work acts, works, through a process of individuation and transindividuation. The recipient of the work has a potential, the work of art releases within the recipient. This paper will argue that the work of art, or the image, functions as a form of transindividuation, a circuit of individuating between artist and work of art

Questions Concerning Attention and Stiegler’s Therapeutics

The article sets out to develop the concept of attention as a key aspect to building the possible therapeutics that Bernard Stiegler’s recent works have pointed to (The Automatic Society, 2016, The Neganthropocene, 2018 and Qu’appelle-t-on Panser, 2018). The therapeutic aspect of pharmacology takes place through processes that are neganthropic; therefore, which attempt to counteract the entropic nature of digital technologies where there is flattening out to the measurable and the calculable of Big Data. The most obvious examples of this flattening out can be seen in relation to the use of natural language processing technologies for text interpretation and the use of text analytics alongside student analytics. However, the process of exosomatisation of knowledge takes place in forms of hypomnesic tertiary retentions or digital technologies. The loss of knowledge is inherent to these processes of exteriorisation, this loss of knowledge takes place through a process proletarianisation which Marx had pointed to in the Grundisse (1939). The therapeutic gesture is, therefore, an intrinsically educational one, where the loss of knowledge of the pharmacological nature of digital technologies is counteracted by other forms of knowledge construction that can be enabled by digital technologies. Hence, there is a profound educational gesture necessary to enable the re-harnessing of technology to enable the therapeutics. This paper will argue that the positive re-harnessing, the therapeutics, can take place through the development of new forms of neganthropic gestures which can be afforded by the development of specific forms of digital technologies. These also enable a contributive research process whereby the rationalisation of the production of knowledge within the university can be challenged by collaborative, interpretative processes of knowledge production

The Question of Fiction – Nonexistent Objects, a Possible World Response From Paul Ricoeur

The question of fiction is omnipresent within the work of Paul Ricoeur throughout his prolific career. However, Ricoeur raises the questions of fiction in relation to other issues such the symbol, metaphor and narrative. This article sets out to foreground a traditional problem of fiction and logic, which is termed the existence of non-existent objects, in relation to the Paul Ricoeur’s work on narrative. Ricoeur’s understanding of fiction takes place within his overall philosophical anthropology where the fictions and histories make up the very nature of identity both personal and collective. The existence of non-existent objects demonstrates a dichotomy between fiction and history, non-existent objects can exist as fictional objects. The very possibility of the existence of fictional objects entails ontological status considerations. What ontological status do fictional objects have? Ricoeur develops a concept of narrative configuration which is akin to the Kantian productive imagination and configuration frames the question historical narrative and fictional narrative. It is demonstrated that the ontological status of fictional objects can be best understood in a model of possible worlds

Revisiting Ekphrasis: The Early Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur.

Through revisiting the notion of the symbol and sign in the relatively early work of Paul Ricoeur it hoped to point to a yet unexplored element of his work in relation to Aesthetics and contemporary Critical Theory. This paper will focus on a particular point in the work of Paul Ricoeur, a point where the problematic of language begins to come to the fore within his structural phenomenology of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The publication of The Symbolism of Evil in 1960 represents a definite departure from the structural Phenomenology of his earlier works where the central concern was the limits of experience and freedom. However, the turn to symbolic language is set, it will be argued in this paper, in a wider context of an understanding of the symbol. The famous maxim of The Symbolism of Evil: ‘le symbole donne à penser’, it will be argued could be seen a determining element in the reconsideration of the nature of language and Aesthetics within hermeneutic phenomenology. The hermeneutic phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur’s early work could enable the re-evaluation of the mediation of the silence of the artwork. One of the principal tenants of this paper is, therefore, the problematic of Ekphrasis. The relationship between image and text, visual material culture and language which is central to any development of a new critical theory; a theorizing of theaesthetic object which is beyond the predominant discourse of visual semiotics where images are held to speak. Whilst, it could be argued that Ricoeur is referring to particular types of experience in The Symbolism of Evil, there is the possibility of generalizing the nature of the relationship between language and pre-linguistic experience to include the problematic of Aesthetic experience as a pre-linguistic experience. Ricoeur develops more completely the relationship between the aesthetic experience and communicability through the notion of ‘monstration’ in his later works and interviews. Nonetheless, the nature of the symbol and the sign has been largely been considered by critics in relation to his linguistic or metaphorical analysis of the sign and the symbol. If the symbol gives rise to thought, it could be argued that language, not only mediates the silence of the visual artwork but to certain extent constitutes it. Contemporary forms of artistic practice challenge traditional understandings of Ekphrasis and by revisiting the work of Paul Ricoeur a better understanding could be achieved

Knowing Knowledge

The position of the Art Academy in relation to third level education seems to be on the agenda in a number of ways at the moment. Recently at IMMA there was a panel discussion on the topic of “Art Academy+Knowing” in the context of the I Know You exhibition which is takign place there at the moment, but also within the wider sector there seems to be a sequence of alliances between the tradition Art College and third level education. The movement towards more integration of the stand alone Art Colleges and third level education is high on the agenda of the Higher Education Authority, where recent interest in the creative arts provision for education in the Dublin region has led to the publication of a specific report. However, there is nonetheless as inherenet tension between the provision of arts education and the third level sector. Whilst the push towards integration in itself is nothing new, the relationship between the types of knowledge being pursued is becoming more and more prevalent. The ‘knowing’ in the title of the panel discussion at IMMA needs to be attended to more directly which I would like to explore here a little further. The relationship between knowledge which is tacit, tactile specific to practice has been in discourse relate to the Arts College for quite some time know, however, if the Art College wishes to extend the debate with third level education there is a pressing need to advance this debate. Perhaps situating the debate during a major exhibition and providing a platform with the Irish, subtext, National Museum of Modern Art was not going to allow this necessary attention needed for the debate to take place

Molybdenum deficiency on lighter soils

WIDESPREAD occurrences of molybdenum deficiency of subterranean clover have been observed on sandy and gfravelly surfaced soils in recent years, and present indications are that molybdenum will join copper and zinc as a major trace element deficiency of many of these soils

Trace elements for cereal crops and pastures

TRACE element deficiencies are widespread in Western Australia and application of copper, zinc, molybdenum and cobalt have played a major part in land development in this State. Research Officer E. N. Fitzpatrick, M.Sc. (Agric.) reviews recent Department of Agriculture research on the use of Trace elements for crop and pasture growth on deficient soils in Western Australia