The New School's vera list center for art and politics presents "Speculation, now"Book Launch Featuring Discussions with Arjun Appadurai and Others |
NEW YORK, February 9, 2015—On February 18, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School will present Speculation, Now, the Center’s latest work exploring moments of uncertainty across a number of different fields and industries. Edited by Vyjayanthi Venuturupalli Rao, with Prem Krishnamurthy and Carin Kuoni, in collaboration with Duke University Press, the book gathers the voices of artists, architects, designers, economists, scientists, and scholars to reflect on the speculative moment in their fields. Theoretical premises and anecdotal accounts, artistic interventions and ethnographic fieldwork are brought together in a blurring of categories and frameworks. Original texts and visual contributions commissioned for the book transcend known methodologies, offering conclusions that are open-ended and, in traditional terms, unverifiable. Therein lies critical potential of speculation, to subvert established facts and undermine dominant discourse. “Speculation, Now brings together artists, designers, academics, and writers to demonstrate the relevance and usefulness of a speculative approach shared by these disciplines, as well as highlight the political possibility in every attempt to understand our contemporary moment,” said Carin Kuoni, Director of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. Increasingly, action in diverse fields takes a speculative approach. Recent philosophical movements such as Speculative Realism, critical scholarship within the human sciences, artistic projects, and financial and environmental design practices all reflect an embrace of the speculative ethos, with varying degrees of hope, fear and desire for control. Pushing against known analytical frameworks, a world of radical uncertainty demands an embrace of the unknown and, consequently, a move beyond the limits of existing epistemologies—whether those of financial models or understandings of the future, of objects and their substantive qualities. Speculation, Now is a project that combines the space of the book with the space of an exhibition, and provides points of convergence between images, concepts and language. By design, the book engages in speculative practice through the unconventional distribution and sequencing of contributions that encourages non-linear reading. The book embraces the speculative moment—the “modalities of the maybe”—in order to comprehend, develop plans of action, and change conditions that pit the individual versus global flows of information and resources. The book will be presented on Wednesday, February 18th from 6:30-8:00 pm at the Lang Community and Student Center at 55 West 13th Street. Live entertainment will be provided by The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, as well as magicians and fortune tellers. The celebrations will be punctuated by brief remarks from contributors beginning at 7:00 pm, including an introduction by anthropologist Arjun Appadurai and statements by artists Lize Mogel and Josiah McElheny, among others. The event is free and open to the public. For more details, visit The New School’s event calendar. Read on for more information on contributors to Speculation, Now: Main text contributors include: Benjamin Aranda |
| Founded in 1919, The New School was born out of principles of academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. Committed to social engagement, The New School today remains in the vanguard of innovation in higher education, with more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students challenging the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media. The New School welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education courses and calendar of lectures, screenings, readings, and concerts. Through its online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships, The New School maintains a global presence. Learn more at www.newschool.edu. |
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