Re: The Deleuzian Philosophy of Julian Assange
Dear Florian, I couldn't agree more. Anyhow, a small change to your last sentence is needed: > And one should think that all those naive misreadings of Deleuze, > Internet culture and technology were a fad of the 1990s. The problem does not come from any 'Deleuzian misreadings' but more precisely from a terrible misread of Deleuze own work... best ml On 21Dec2010, at 3:17 PM, Florian Cramer wrote: > On Monday, December 20 2010, 06:45 (-0500), John Young wrote: > >> The Deleuzian Philosophy of Julian Assange >> >> Philip Pilkington >> >> [Excerpt] >> >> Ref: http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf >> >> As already shown, Assange borrows heavily from the information sciences - >> more specifically, cognitive neuroscience and computer science. This is >> extremely interesting because this leads his philosophy to resemble certain >> contemporary post-structural philosophies ? most specifically, that of the >> 20th century French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. > > ...so we get a classical example of a false syllogism. The fact that > both Assange and Deleuze borrow from information science doesn't make > Assange a Deleuzian. <...> # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: Clouds, volcanoes, politics and the economy
Thank you Ana. Now that you mention Virilio, I also remember something he wrote a few years ago about a schoolmaster who advised his pupils not to run in the courtyard, otherwise their playground could become smaller... cheers m /// MIGUEL LEAL m...@virose.pt | http://ml.virose.pt // # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Clouds, volcanoes, politics and the economy
Hi I've just written a small text about clouds, volcanoes, politics and the economy. It will be printed soon by some friends in Berlin <http://www.opiso.blogspot.com>. best ml __ A metonymy of displacement: Clouds and volcanoes Miguel Leal We know from physics that every displacement is relative. It seems there is no such thing as displacement without a point of origin, without a point from were to measure both the direction and the distance of a certain movement from one place to the other. In those terms displacement can only be defined as a relative condition: the actual position (B) being relative to an initial position (A). To be out of place is to be displaced. We obtain the figures of our displacement by measuring the difference between A and B, a difference that implies not only space but also time. The sense of displacement depends on this relation between A and B, there and here, then and now. However, we also know things can be much more complicated. For instance, the kind of measurement we were just describing usually uses as reference a straight line going from A to B from which it is impossible to draw the real path taken during the displacement from one point to the other. Displacement is always an awkward situation based on strange connections between time and space. Displacement is not (only) a matter of measurements. Imagine A and B are not only two but a multiplicity of points, imagine then is now and now is then, imagine there is here and here is there, imagine everything is out of place. How to define displacement from such a complicated placement of things? Retaining the basic idea that every displacement is relative, we will try to step a little further into this. Shifting quickly to psychoanalysis, the terrain of a very complex notion of time and space, we will discover other useful notions to think about this topic. In fact, Freud, haunted by his former education as a neurologist, always felt tempted to explain the functioning of the unconscious through topographic models. Early in his work we find the very notion of displacement (verschiebung) being used as a key concept to describe certain unconscious processes of the psyche. Although the notion of displacement was approached differently throughout his vast work, Freud always kept it as a way to explain the reattachment (by a repressive displacement) of something to something else: B in the place of A; A transposed to B. But the interesting (and complicated) part of this process is that this Freudian displacement — relative as any other displacement — implies a forgotten origin. We are displaced without any notion of displacement. And, in the end, reenacting it all, we discover that B is not B and it’s not A; A is not A and is not B. During this process A and B are transformed into something else. There is no return to any ideal point of origin. Furthermore, looking back critically at Freud and psychoanalysis, we realize there is no point of origin at all: A transforms B and B transforms A; this process is pure transformation and we never really get the answers we expect. Years later Lacan[1], opening the book of linguistics to explain a former topological problem, compared displacement to metonymy, the figure of speech in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name. Actually, with the notion of displacement proposed by psychoanalysis we enter a completely different terrain, less topographic and extensive and more complex and intensive, a terrain where everything is out of place and where words speak different languages, a terrain where there are no points (A, B or even C) but only intensive connections between them. Following this, and knowing already how A and B are not what they seem to be, we also realize there is no such thing as a line between A and B, but only points precariously situated at the intersection of several lines[2]. Every displacement is in fact relative but is also intensive, complex and sometimes contradictory. ** Early this year an Icelandic volcano with an unpronounceable name — Eyjafjallajökull — woke furiously from a long period of rest. Overwhelmed by it, but feeling safe monitoring the event at distance, we were far from imagining the real effects of this eruption in our lives. In fact, a huge cloud of ashes extended its long tail over Europe, creating chaos in the skies. Flights cancelled and airports closed, Europe rediscovered its geography and experienced something different about the idea of displacement and the effects of the so-called globalization. First in April and again in May, the cloud of volcanic ashes covered the skies in an insidious manner, quickly reaching central and southern Europe. Invisible and silent as it was, at least from the ground, the cloud could only be (roughly) followed through satellite images and its position at a certain moment was always hard to det
Fwd: End of occupation of Mansion building / Middlesex University
Begin forwarded message: > From: Eric Alliez > Date: May 16, 2010 12:34:05 AM GMT+01:00 > Subject: End of occupation of Mansion building / Middlesex University > > REAL EMERGENCY FOR ALL SUPORT INITIATIVES! > Thanks! > Eric > >> >> >> Dear all, >> >> As many of you may already know, the students decided to end their >> occupation of the Mansion building this afternoon, and the >> campaign has posted a statement at http://savemdxphil.com/ >> 2010/05/15/the-occupation-is-over-the-campaign-continues/. >> >> The occupation has had a tremendous impact, both at Middlesex and >> on sympathetic campuses all over the world. >> >> We assume that the University will not proceed with any further >> legal or disciplinary threats against any of the people involved. >> Needless to say, if this assumption turns out to be misplaced then >> the Philosophy staff at Middlesex and, for sure, many of our >> colleagues in and out of UK will do everything in their power to >> defend students and their supporters. >> >> Middlesex Philosophy >> > > # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Middlesex University close all Philosophy programmes
Dear Nettimers, I've just received this incredible information from Eric Alliez. Please redistribute widely. You can find an on-line petition at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-middlesex-philosophy.html best ml ___ Earlier this afternoon all staff in the Arts and Education section of Middlesex University received the following email: Dear colleagues, Late on Monday 26 April, the Dean of the School of Arts & Humanities, Ed Esche, informed staff in Philosophy that the University executive had ‘accepted his recommendation’ to close all Philosophy programmes: undergraduate, postgraduate and MPhil/PhD. Philosophy is the highest research-rated subject in the University. Building on its grade 5 rating in RAE2001, it was awarded a score of 2.8 on the new RAE scale in 2008, with 65% of its research activity judged ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. It is now widely recognised as one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy anywhere in the English-speaking world. The MA programmes in Philosophy at Middlesex have grown in recent years to become the largest in the UK, with 42 new students admitted in September 2009. The Dean explained that the decision to terminate recruitment and close the programmes was ’simply financial’, and based on the fact that the University believes that it may be able to generate more revenue if it shifts its resources to other subjects – from ‘Band D’ to ‘Band C’ students. As you may know, the University currently expects each academic unit to contribute 55% of its gross income to the central administration. As it stands (by the credit count method of calculation), Philosophy and Religious Studies contributes 53%, after the deduction of School admin costs. According to the figures for projected recruitment from admissions (with Philosophy undergraduate applications up 118% for 2010-11), if programmes had remained open, the contribution from Philosophy and Religious Studies would have risen to 59% (with Philosophy’s contribution, considered on its own, at 53%). In a meeting with Philosophy staff, the Dean acknowledged the excellent research reputation of Philosophy at Middlesex, but said that it made no ‘measurable’ contribution to the University. Needless to say, we very much regret this decision to terminate Philosophy, and its likely consequences for the School and our University and for the teaching of our subject in the UK. · Professor Peter Hallward, Programme Leader for the MA programmes in Philosophy, · Professor Peter Osborne, Director, Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, · Dr. Stella Sandford, Director of Programmes, Philosophy __ Late on Monday 26 April, staff in Philosophy at Middlesex University in London were informed that the University executive are to close all Philosophy programmes: undergraduate, postgraduate and MPhil/PhD. Philosophy is the highest research-rated subject at Middlesex University, with 65% of its research activity judged 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' in the UK government's recent Research Assessment Exercise. It is now widely recognised as one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy anywhere in the English-speaking world. Its MA programmes in Philosophy have grown in recent years to become the largest in the UK, with 42 new students admitted in September 2009. Middlesex offers one of only a handful of programmes left in the UK that provides both research-driven and inclusive post-graduate teaching aimed at a wide range of students, specialist and non-specialist. It is also one of relatively few such programmes that remains financially viable, currently contributing close to half of its total income to the University's central administration. This decision to terminate Philosophy at Middlesex will have serious consequences for the teaching of philosophy in the UK. This is a shameful decision which essentially means the end of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, a hub for internationally renowned scholarship (http://www.web.mdx.ac.uk/crmep/; staff include Eric Alliez, Peter Hallward, Mark Kelly, Christian Kerslake, Peter Osborne and Stella Sandford). This act of wilful self-harm by the University must be resisted. Please join the facebook group and spread the word: http:// www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119102561449990 And sign the petition http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save- middlesex-philosophy.html Campaign email: savemdxp...@gmail.com It would be helpful if you could send an email to these people, responsible for the decision that has been made. Vice-Chancellor of the University, Michael Driscoll, m.drisc...@mdx.ac.uk; Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise, Waqar Ahmad,w.ah...@mdx.ac.uk; Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, Margaret House, m.ho..
