Summer 2020 - Schedule (Saas-Fee)
The opening seminars of the July Session will be hosted by the Accademia di belle arti Giacomo Carrara in Bergamo, Italy from July 24 to August 1, 2020. Students will travel from Bergamo to Saas-Fee on August 1, 2020. The Saas-Fee sessions at the Steinmatte campus will feature several seminars in each student grouping from August 1 – 17, 2020.
Seminars will be split between a morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and afternoon session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.).
If students wish to switch seminars for any reason, they must request this change through Nemanja Mitrovic (nemanja.mitrovic@egs.edu) and Sarah Hannis (admissions@egs.edu) at least one week prior to the start of the session.
PAS Students
LMVT Students
Orientation Session with Dean Christopher Fynsk
Mladen Dolar and Alenka Zupančič
Slavoj Žižek and Siegfried Zelinski
Ruben Östlund
Mladen Dolar – “What is Authority? On Authority and Related Matters” – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
Alenka Zupančič – “Passions” – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Slavoj Žižek – “The Rise of Obscene Masters” – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
Siegfried Zelinski – “Materiology and Variantology” – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Ruben Östlund – – Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
ASSESSMENT / BREAK
Mladen Dolar and Alenka Zupančič
Slavoj Žižek and Siegfried Zelinski
Casey Reas, Rainer Kohlberger, and Gene Kogan
Mladen Dolar – “What is Authority? On Authority and Related Matters” – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
Alenka Zupančič – “Passions” – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Slavoj Žižek – “The Rise of Obscene Masters” Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
Siegfried Zelinski – “”Materiology and Variantology”” – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
ARTS & AI – Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Discussion will feature Casey Reas, Rainer Kohlberger, and Gene Kogan.
ARRIVAL IN SAAS-FEE
Catherine Malabou
Carlos Amorales
Catherine Malabou – Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.)
Through a reading of Merleau-Ponty’s major work, we will try to put his definition of the body schema in perspective with contemporary visions of the body in neuroscience, psychoanalysis and critical theory/philosophy.
Carlos Amorales – Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
“A kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual”. The “persona” was for Carl Jung the social face an individual presented to the world. The act of creating a persona by masking oneself, will be analyzed as a distancing move that allows individuals vantage points from which to observe and interact in social situations. In this sense, the act of masking oneself, will ultimately be seen as an act of self-exile from a surveying society, in which the limits between public and private realms have become porous. Through a series of artistic examples, in which the act of masking is exercised at different levels (within the self, through visual images and in written and musical languages), the usefulness of masking and wearing masks will be explored and discussed. This seminar will be based on the text “The Rhetoric of the Mask” by Carlos Amorales, published on the occasion of his mid-career survey exhibition, held this year at the Stedelijk Museum, in Amsterdam.
“Being Music” Workshop with Michael Schmidt
Sarah Nuttall and Achille Mbembe (TBC)
TBA
Sarah Nuttall and Achille Mbembe – Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Academic Writing Workshop
Elie During
Avital Ronell
Benjamin Bratton
Elie During – Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
The seminar will address critical issues underlying the contemporary imagination of spaceflight by following a particular thread: the experience of microgravity (or “zero-G”) considered as a spiritual exercise, a gnostic discipline or subdomain of what Blumenberg wittingly described as “astronoetics”. In the context of a massive revival of interest in the ecological and political challenges raised by space exploration and the prospects of extraterrestrial colonization, such an inquiry into the philosophical meaning of orbital weightlessness requires a special blend of gravity and playfulness, literality and abstraction. We will be navigating between case studies taken from the abundant literature on the human aspects of astronautics (astronauts’ biographies, sci-fi novels, neuroscientific studies of non-gravitational experience), and a hefty collection of theoretical works (from Plessner to Sloterdijk and Latour) dealing with the wider metaphysical and anthropological significance of the “Space Age”. Here the focus will be on the specific problems posed by the emergence of homo ingravitus as a plausible paradigm for the future evolution of the human species. We will try to substantiate the following claim: at the heart of the matter is a certain transformation of the gaze heralded and prefigured by a series of experimentations in the field of visual and performing arts, from Malevich to recent explorations of holographic space and the sensorium of the expanded body. Briefly stated, what is at stake is a floating gaze emancipated from the very notion of viewpoint. This does not require that we embrace vast expanses of space, nor that we yield to the melancholy of “Earthrises”: the so-called “overview effect” can be achieved at home as much as on board the ISS by reflecting, for example, on neuropsychological findings about multi-stable perception, or the use of axonometric projection in architectural drawing. When it comes to realizing an “orbital view” of our current condition, zero-G and its terrestrial counterparts function like magnifying lenses. They may also help us reach a better understanding of what is at stake in the cosmic pessimism expressing itself in much of the philosophical literature on space exploration.
Avital Ronell – Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Pressed by contemporary ruthlessness we want to learn from philosophy, literature, film and the arts how to configure the tyrannical temptations of the human frame. The marginalization of Plato’s “democratic soul” will lead an investigation into patriarchal crime scenes double-headed by Freud and the Ancients in their effort to manage human waywardness, sadistic excess, incessant trespass and violent slams. Melanie Klein’s thinking of the “bad breast,” destructive drives, and the premises of reparative justice will power our discussions of lawless abandon. Above all, participants will be supplied with materials for their projects and intellectually-pitched aspirations.
Benjamin Bratton – Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM
Gayatri Spivak
Miran Božovič
Gayatri Spivak – Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Miran Božovič -Morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
The course will explore the implications of various literary works for the history of philosophy. Works discussed will include: 17th– and 18th-century Cartesian and Spinozistic novels by G. Daniel and Simon Tyssot de Patot; 18th-century erotic novels Thérèse Philosophe (1748) by d’Argens [?], and The Indiscreet Jewels (1748) by Diderot; two materialist novels Rameau’s Nephew (1774) and Jacques the Fatalist (1778) by Diderot, and his philosophical comedy D’Alembert’s Dream (1769); Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) and Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata (1889). Some of these works discover the most abstract and sublime metaphysical principles in entirely ordinary, everyday situations, that is, the principles for which even the thinkers who first established them were not always able to provide convincing examples. Other works try to answer the question: What might philosophy have been like in certain most distant and inaccessible eras of human history? Still other works raise the question: What sort of philosophical theory would have been likely to arise in the mind conscious of its departure from the body in the fleeting moment of death? Furthermore, some works tackle the question: What sort of metaphysical theory would be developed by the mind after its separation from the body, that is, in the long centuries of its disembodied existence? And, finally, some literary works constitute, in their own right, new and previously unknown chapters in the history of philosophy. In short, in the light of these literary works, the history of philosophy as we know it would have to be substantially revised if not entirely rewritten.
DEPARTURE DAY
Fall 2020 - Schedule (Malta)
The Fall Session will take place at The University of Malta (Valetta Campus) aka Old University Building, Valetta in Malta from October 2-25.
Seminars will be split between a morning (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and afternoon session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.).
If students wish to switch seminars for any reason, they must request this change through Nemanja Mitrovic (nemanja.mitrovic@egs.edu) and Sarah Hannis (admissions@egs.edu) one week prior to the start of the session.
PAS Students
LMVT Students
Orientation Session with Dean Christopher Fynsk (9:00 a.m.)
TBA
TBA
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
ASSESSMENT / BREAK
TBA
TBA
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
ASSESSMENT / BREAK
Judith Butler
Ben Frost and Richard Mosse
Judith Butler – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
Judith Butler – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
ASSESSMENT / BREAK
Karen Barad
TBA
Karen Barad – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
ASSESSMENT / BREAK
TBA
TBA
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Creative Writing Workshop with Lars Iyer
TBA
TBA
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
TBA – Morning Session (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
TBA – Afternoon Session (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)