[-empyre-] January 2010 on -empyre-: The Art of Complicity

[Nicholas Ruiz III]

happy new year -empyre-

'tis an art to complicity some say... 

The accepted, and then, the unacceptable? A book like -Sarah Palin's 'Going Rogue,' and then, a book like 'The Coming Insurrection'; an altar panel like Martini's 'Annunciation',and then a piece like Dali's ink drawing from 1956, 'Annunciation'...transgression of the boundaries of our assent and complicity, in our creative practices, in our lives, and in our immortalities...Handel's 'Messiah' and Trent Reznor's 'The Hand that Feeds'...what difference some centuries make, and how we do walk the walk, and talk the talk, no? 

Where do we place our pessimisms, our hopes, or educations in rebellion, our acceptances?
Do our arts and lives straddle the commercial horse of enterprise with an infirmity? Enter the gauntlet or throw it down? Perhaps the stakes are less than this?

It's January 2010. On the one hand, let us not take ourselves too seriously in what Sam Sparrow has aptly called our 21st century life - but on the other hand, let's not sell ourselves short. Where Fukuyama once declared history's end, Baudrillard reclaimed 'l'illusion de la fin.' We proceed with the full gravity of events - and the dark matter and energy of non-events as thought and theory.

In other words, what is the enduring love and art of complicity?

our guests:

Gerry Coulter is Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada. He is editor of the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies.

Johanna Drucker is the Martin and Bernard Breslauer Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of several books, including 'Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity.' 

Joshua Foa Dienstag is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of 'Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit.'

Jon Haber is an editor and writer living in New York.

Pleas join us: http://www.subtle.net/empyre/


Nicholas Ruiz III, Ph.D
Co-Moderator, -empyre-

NRIII for Congress 2010
http://intertheory.org/nriiiforcongress2010.html
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Editor, Kritikos
http://intertheory.org