Jason Barker

Professor of Media Philosophy at The European Graduate School / EGS.

Biography

Jason Barker (b. 1971) is a theorist, director, screenwriter, and producer. He has published on themes ranging from the pragmatics of media ethics to post-Marxist debates on militant politics and subjectivity.

Born in London, Jason Barker was educated at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design where he graduated with a degree in media studies in 1995, and at Cardiff University where he studied philosophy under Distinguished Research Professor Christopher Norris, gaining his PhD in 2003. The relation of theory to leftist politics has been Barker’s guiding intellectual preoccupation to date, informing his publication in 2002, Alain Badiou: A Critical Introduction (London: Pluto Press), the first book-length study of Badiou’s philosophy to appear in any language. In the words of Alain Badiou himself, the book provides the “best account of my work’s political trajectory.” Jason Barker is also the English translator of Badiou’s Metapolitics.

In September 2002, Jason Barker began teaching media theory at Middlesex University, and the following spring presented a paper at the opening of the “Capitalism and Philosophy Laboratory.” This series of experimental theory workshops, organized by the Center for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP), brought together several Badiou researchers, each of whom would go on to establish a distinct reputation in philosophy: Ray Brassier, Sam Gillespie, Peter Hallward, and Alberto Toscano. Later that spring Barker would rejoin them in the Atelier Badiou, the series of workshops organized by Bruno Besana and Oliver Feltham at Université Paris VIII, and whose proceedings were finally published in L’Harmattan’s collection “La Philosophie en commun” in 2007.

In November 2003, Jason Barker took part in the inaugural meeting of ONPhi (l’Organisation Non-philosophique) at the CRMEP, the international non-philosophical research network jointly set up by Ray Brassier, the French philosopher François Laruelle, and the latter’s former student Gilles Grelet. The following year Jason Barker became a corresponding member of ONPhi and in 2005 began teaching at Ecole Sainte-Geneviève (“Ginette”) in Versailles. While at Ginette, and in collaboration with Gilles Grelet, Barker helped set up GAG (Groupe anti-philosophique de Ginette), a student reading group which brought French literature, philosophy, logic, mathematics, and film into creative antagonism.

In 2007, Jason Barker began researching material for an animated feature film on Karl Marx. In 2010, he was awarded a NIPKOW screenwriting fellowship for his Marx Returns screenplay. As writer, director, and co-producer he was also the creative force behind the documentary Marx Reloaded, which includes interviews with leading thinkers on the “idea of communism,” including Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Jacques Rancière, Peter Sloterdijk, and Slavoj Zizek. Commissioned by ZDF and originally broadcast on Arte in April 2011, Marx Reloaded went on to premiere at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, where it screened for a further ten weeks to sell-out audiences. Described by the philosopher Simon Critchley as “a great introduction to Marx for a new generation,” and by German political scientist Herfried Münkler as “the type of film that Marx himself would have approved of,” the film was showcased at numerous festivals and universities around the world, including Columbia University, Duke University, The London School of Economics, Goldsmiths College, Belgrade University, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima), Kyung Hee University (Seoul), and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Barker has taught widely on film, media theory, and philosophy. In particular, he has focused on the cinema of anti-capitalism inspired by Marxist philosophy, Lacanian psychoanalysis, semiotics, and literary theory. A characteristic feature of Barker’s work is his resistance to “otherness” or what he perceives as the misreading of Lacan in ethics: “Lacan was careful to distinguish ethics proper, which involved following one’s desire to the ‘letter,’ from the ‘service of goods,’ or the mere pursuit of self-interest.” Against this tendency, prevalent in contemporary cultural and literary theory, Barker speculates on the need for “(little) cultural revolution”: “Very briefly, this revolution would involve neutralising the discourses of alterity, those discourses responsible for the ‘eroticisation’ of (Real) desire, and which thrive on the spectacle of the subject’s alienation in language. Its practice would thus consist in what Lardreau and Jambet call the ‘tracking down of semblances,’ i.e. tracking down all the signifiers that chain desire to whatever norms are at work in any given situation, and which ultimately force the multiplicity of desire(s) to pass through the desire of the Other.”

Most recent published research includes Barker’s “Wherefore Art Thou Philosophy? Badiou without Badiou” in Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy (Vol. 8.1, 2012). This essay aims to defend the philosophical stakes of Badiou’s “intrinsic ontology” while highlighting the methodological difficulties of reconciling the latter with a philosophy of the event. The essay concludes by speculating on the “unbound,” “unconditioned” potential of Badiou’s “two-headed philosophy.” Presently, Jason Barker is preparing material for a monograph entitled, Rebel Without a Cause.

Works

Books

Alain Badiou: A Critical Introduction, Barker, Jason. Alain Badiou: A Critical Introduction. Pluto Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780745318004

Chapters

De l’Etat au Maître: Badiou et le post-marxisme

Barker, Jason. “De l’Etat au Maître: Badiou et le post-marxisme.” In Ecrits Autour de la Pensée d’Alain Badiou, edited by Bruno Besana and Oliver Feltham, 187-193. L’Harmattan, 2006. ISBN: 9782296026858

Translator’s Introduction

Barker, Jason. “Translator’s Introduction.” Introduction in Metapolitics, by Alain Badiou, vii-xxx. Verso, 2005. ISBN: 184467035X

Nous, les sans-marxisme

Barker, Jason. “Nous, les sans-marxisme.” In Théorie-Rébellion. Un Ultimatum, edited by Gilles Grelet, 130-132. L’Harmattan, 2005. ISBN: 2747592103

‘Shock’: the value of emotion

Barker, Jason. “‘Shock’: the value of emotion.” In Ethics and Media Culture. Practices and Representations, edited by David Berry, 192-207. Focal Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780240516035

Interviews

World in Crisis Series: Interview with Intellectuals: Jason Barker

Barker, Jason, and Taek-Gwang Lee. “World in Crisis Series: Interview with Intellectuals: Jason Barker.” The Korea Times, May 9, 2012.

Can Marx Save Capitalism

Barker, Jason, Robin Blackburn, and Martin Sandbu. “Can Marx Save Capitalism?” The Financial Times, February 17, 2012.

An interview with Jason Barker, director of Marx Reloaded

Barker, Jason, and Huw Lemmy. “An interview with Jason Barker, director of Marx Reloaded.” VersoBooks.com, February 7, 2012.

Interview with Jason Barker, director of Marx Reloaded

Barker, Jason, and Yoon-Ju Lee. “Interview with Jason Barker, director of Marx Reloaded.” The Korea Times, September 26, 2011.

Marx Enters the Matrix

Barker, Jason, and Nemanja Korsic. “Marx Enters the Matrix.” New Left Project, May 26, 2011.

Translations

Metapolitics

Barker, Jason, trans. Metapolitics, by Alain Badiou. Verso, 2005. ISBN: 184467035X

Edited Works

 

맑스 재장전: 자본주의와 공산주의에 관한 대담 / Marx Reloaded: Interviews on Capitalism and Communism
Barker, Jason, ed. 맑스 재장전: 자본주의와 공산주의에 관한 대담 / Marx Reloaded: Interviews on Capitalism and Communism. Translated by Grace Park. Nanjang Publishing House, 2013. ISBN: 9788994769149

 

Lectures