Wednesday, 3 November 2021, 6.30 pm, online | eight meetings, every two weeks, with a winter break
Study group organised by
Anastasia Kolas
Alexander Galloway describes interface as a ‘fertile nexus’: a tarnished threshold gathering particles on its edges, connecting the fictitious paradigm of inside/outside. An interface is a filter in which what is filtered, and the filter itself, has to be at some point assimilated back into the system that produced it, and where an act of filtering is a way of redistributing matter, rather than a way of merely removing one thing, or a part of, from another. The title, Relational Arthritis, is itself a product of an accidental collaboration with an interface – from a phone misspelling ‘relational aesthetics’ in a text message, a term devised by Nicolas Bourriaud in the 1990s. The study group will engage in a discussion of fiction, media, cultural and art theory loosely gathered under the umbrella of ‘interface’ as a place of collision and dispersal, where critical thinking, affect and identities meets visual culture.
We will be reading excerpts of works by: Maggie Nelson, Suely Rolnik, Rey Chow, Sianne Ngai and others. Curriculum readings will be provided as we go, the reading for the first meeting will be sent about two weeks ahead.
Dates: 3 November | 17 November | 1 December | 15 December | 12 January | 26 January | 9 February | 23 February.
The study group will take place online, and participation is limited. To register and receive the materials, please send an email to mail@diffrakt.space.
