Sunday, February 20, 2011

Visible Dialogues

Hello Everyone,

I have been looking at Deleuze's Dialogues II and it is interesting, because it was supposed to be part of a series of interviews, but he refused to be interviewed and looked at a situation of a dialogue instead. Here is what he has to say:

"The art of constructing a problem is very important: you invent a problem, a problem position, before finding a solution. None of this happens in an interview, a conversation, a discussion. Even reflection, whether it's alone, between two or more is not enough. Above all, not reflection. Objections are even worse. every time someone someone puts an objection I want to say 'OK, OK, let's go on to something else'. Objections have never contributed anything. It is the same when I am asked a general question. The aim is not to answer the question, it's to get out, to get out of it."

Per

Monday, February 14, 2011

Is the Brain a Machine?




One of the fundamental questions that Elias and Per have been dealing with in their dialogues, are questions related to the scientific idea of the universe, life and thought-processes that are seen as automations.

The Italian curator Alessandra Sandrolini has found this exciting text on the plasticity of the brain and how that affects our ideas of freedom. It discusses Catherine Malabou's book "What Should We Do with our Brain?" Have a look here:

Here is a quote to wet your intellectual taste buds:

"The lack of a well-articulated consciousness of the plastic brain creates a vacuum that opens the door to ideological infiltration. If you don’t come up with your own narratives and ideas to take charge of your life, others will happily provide ideas and stories for you. In our day, the chief providers of ready-to-use narratives for all areas of human existence are the spin-doctors in personnel departments and counselling companies of corporate capitalism. We witness the rise of a new spirit of capitalism, the soft but unrelenting pressures of globalised economy, the universal demand for adaptability, flexibility, emotional intelligence, creativity, self-motivation, and other ‘new values’ that will further entangle work and life, that will facilitate the near-complete absorption of existence into the corporate culture of the work world."