Thursday, 30 November 2017, 7.30 pm, diffrakt | centre for theoretical periphery
Talk and discussion with Larne Abse Gogarty and Hannah Proctor.
In their talk, followed by discussion, Larne Abse Gogarty and Hannah Proctor will discuss confusions of scale in social struggles through a consideration of the politics of dreaming. Drawing on their recent collaboration on a project called ‘Communist Feelings’, their presentation will insist on the centrality of interpersonal relationships and forms of psychological investment and disillusionment to histories of left-wing revolutionary movements. They will consider the potentially damaging implications of political struggles which seem to expand to encompass all aspects of activists’ lives and selves, whilst also acknowledging the necessity for people on the left to think and act disproportionately, inflatedly or excessively, in order to transform the existing state of things. Dreams might seem like ‘small’, subjective and hence apolitical phenomena, yet dreams are not outside of history. This event invites participants to focus on the politics of dreaming to explore ways in which the macro-political is interlaced with the individual, and the individual is always connected to the social.
Larne Abse Gogarty is an art historian and critic currently based in Berlin, where she is the Terra Foundation for American Art Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Her primary research interests lie in modern and contemporary art with an emphasis on American performance, sculpture and social practice, marxism, race and gender.
Hannah Proctor is a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin. Her research explores histories and theories of radical psychiatry. She is currently conceptualising a new project focused on burnout and the psychic aftermaths of 20th century revolutionary struggles. She is on the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy.
