We invite everyone to a series of Saturday afternoon call-in conversations in the months of March, April, and May 2020. This series will try to serve as an evolving community of study and discussion around the contemporary moment: the possibilities of political and social movements toward new forms of existence, and the impossibilities of history, political consciousness, and health and economic crises that confront the conduct of life and social existence "as usual." These studio sessions will allow us to work through some dimensions of the present in order to work around some pressing questions of politics, wondering together about what aspirations and agendas might yet, walk with us into "the future." What kind of political knowledge, thinking, community, and conversation do we need in the moment?
While we will do our best to use the space in a way that is most responsive to the pressure of the moment, for now we have designed the series such that each session will be anchored in an opening dialogue around "a political story of our lives," and then move into discussion, navigating through certain readings and excerpts that will be made available in our online Falsework booklet. No prior preparation is required, though if you get a chance to read a few suggested things, it would make things more interesting. All are welcome to one, any, or all sessions.
Every session will be open to audio participation via phone or web. Every session will also be recorded and available as a Not Now Complex podcast (a project of Hic Rosa) after the live session.
HOW TO JOIN:
Join our Falsework via Discord
A free, user-friendly voice communication system
(Doesn't require an account or any software downloads!)
HERE'S HOW TO JOIN:
1. Follow this link to join our call: https://discord.gg/KR7gZJH
2. Enter a username (this is how the rest of the group will be able to identify you)
3. Check the ReCaptcha Box (this verifies that you are a real person joining our call)
4. When given the option to create an account, click anywhere on the gray space outside the account box on your screen.
5. Double-click the "Saturday Studio Sessions" Voice Channel (on the left-hand side of your screen). This will allow you to talk and listen to others.
6. You're all set! Don't forget to mute yourself when you are not speaking, and feel free to use the chat box to type notes, share files, etc.
SATURDAY STUDIO SESSIONS
21 March, 3 pm | Politics Contra Crisis
In this introductory session we will map the coordinates of our contemporary political moment, and introduce the dimensions of political conversation to ensue in the coming sessions. The insurgent possibilities of movement-campaign translations signified by the Sanders campaign, the crisis of public and private life and possibility inherent in the global pandemic, and the post-democratic gestures toward new formations of fascist institutions obtaining across the world, suggest some terms and stakes for conversations to come.
28 March, 3 pm | Calls to Politics
Stories of political engagement on various pressing issues in the current moment will anchor a discussion of how we understand our own journeys and goals of political participation, and frustrations and aspirations around it. How is politics different from performance? Who and what gets to determine what we mean by politics and political action? How do we inherit these meanings, and what else do they interact with in a given historical moment?
4 April, 3 pm | Communication & Political Judgment
What forms of political knowledge are available to us? What is the role of media and experts in the consensus on truth and knowledge, and what is it we do by ourselves and together to remain politically conscious. How does this connect to reframing the tasks and forms of left policy-making and futurity that themselves are rooted in particular approaches to aesthetic experience, pedagogy, and political knowledge and theorizing which need to be brought into question.
11 April, 3 pm | (Which) Society Must be Defended? On Old and New Socialities Beyond the Virus
This session will discuss the crisis of social existence as a corollary to the crises of our times, and works through some potentialities of new modes of sociality that are on offer in various different facets of our lives.
18 April & 25 April, 3 pm |
Just Institutions? How, What, Why to Build?
Will “the future” be built on old forms? Will the content exceed the phrase? Beyond that which must be defended lies the question of what must yet be built. The conundrum of institutionality confronts us with ever greater force: if we must build institutions, what will they look like? Are existing forms able to hold us? From the party to the union to the university to forms of "professional" and social belonging, what do we have the potential to rethink and enact? What is an agenda for "left policy" and political and educational institutions to look like?.
2 May, 3 pm | Political Maps of Possibility Beyond the Market
It's not news that neoliberalism as our dominant reality features the market paradigm providing the language for our needs and our capacities. Are there ways the current crises force us to understand the terrain and topography of politics and life in a different way?
9 May, 3 pm | Ideology and the Limit
When political campaigns declare ideological victories, what does that mean? What are the functions, limits, and possibilities of ideology and our self-awareness as particular kinds of citizens and subjects?
16 May, 3 pm | Battles and Wars, Friends & Enemies
This session turns to questions of solidarity and the makeup of our political struggles, and the relations to others that arise within and energise them. It also speaks to the nature of battles and wars lost and won, whether in the everyday or in the realpolitik of empire.
16 May, 3 pm | “Be Ashamed to Let it Die”: End(s) Revisited
This last session of the series discusses what happens in the aftermath of campaigns, movements, institutions, and crises.
HOW TO JOIN:
Join our Falsework via Discord
A free, user-friendly voice communication system
(Doesn't require an account or any software downloads!)
1. Follow this link to join our call: https://discord.gg/KR7gZJH
2. Enter a username (this is how the rest of the group will be able to identify you)
3. Check the ReCaptcha Box (this verifies that you are a real person joining our call)
4. When given the option to create an account, click anywhere on the gray space outside the account box on your screen.
5. Double-click the “Saturday Studio Sessions" Voice Channel (on the left-hand side of your screen). This will allow you to talk and listen to others.
6. You're all set! Don't forget to mute yourself when you are not speaking, and feel free to use the chat box to type notes, share files, etc.
While we will do our best to use the space in a way that is most responsive to the pressure of the moment, for now we have designed the series such that each session will be anchored in an opening dialogue around "a political story of our lives," and then move into discussion, navigating through certain readings and excerpts that will be made available in our online Falsework booklet. No prior preparation is required, though if you get a chance to read a few suggested things, it would make things more interesting. All are welcome to one, any, or all sessions.
Every session will be open to audio participation via phone or web. Every session will also be recorded and available as a Not Now Complex podcast (a project of Hic Rosa) after the live session.
HOW TO JOIN:
Join our Falsework via Discord
A free, user-friendly voice communication system
(Doesn't require an account or any software downloads!)
HERE'S HOW TO JOIN:
1. Follow this link to join our call: https://discord.gg/KR7gZJH
2. Enter a username (this is how the rest of the group will be able to identify you)
3. Check the ReCaptcha Box (this verifies that you are a real person joining our call)
4. When given the option to create an account, click anywhere on the gray space outside the account box on your screen.
5. Double-click the "Saturday Studio Sessions" Voice Channel (on the left-hand side of your screen). This will allow you to talk and listen to others.
6. You're all set! Don't forget to mute yourself when you are not speaking, and feel free to use the chat box to type notes, share files, etc.
SATURDAY STUDIO SESSIONS
21 March, 3 pm | Politics Contra Crisis
In this introductory session we will map the coordinates of our contemporary political moment, and introduce the dimensions of political conversation to ensue in the coming sessions. The insurgent possibilities of movement-campaign translations signified by the Sanders campaign, the crisis of public and private life and possibility inherent in the global pandemic, and the post-democratic gestures toward new formations of fascist institutions obtaining across the world, suggest some terms and stakes for conversations to come.
28 March, 3 pm | Calls to Politics
Stories of political engagement on various pressing issues in the current moment will anchor a discussion of how we understand our own journeys and goals of political participation, and frustrations and aspirations around it. How is politics different from performance? Who and what gets to determine what we mean by politics and political action? How do we inherit these meanings, and what else do they interact with in a given historical moment?
4 April, 3 pm | Communication & Political Judgment
What forms of political knowledge are available to us? What is the role of media and experts in the consensus on truth and knowledge, and what is it we do by ourselves and together to remain politically conscious. How does this connect to reframing the tasks and forms of left policy-making and futurity that themselves are rooted in particular approaches to aesthetic experience, pedagogy, and political knowledge and theorizing which need to be brought into question.
11 April, 3 pm | (Which) Society Must be Defended? On Old and New Socialities Beyond the Virus
This session will discuss the crisis of social existence as a corollary to the crises of our times, and works through some potentialities of new modes of sociality that are on offer in various different facets of our lives.
18 April & 25 April, 3 pm |
Just Institutions? How, What, Why to Build?
Will “the future” be built on old forms? Will the content exceed the phrase? Beyond that which must be defended lies the question of what must yet be built. The conundrum of institutionality confronts us with ever greater force: if we must build institutions, what will they look like? Are existing forms able to hold us? From the party to the union to the university to forms of "professional" and social belonging, what do we have the potential to rethink and enact? What is an agenda for "left policy" and political and educational institutions to look like?.
2 May, 3 pm | Political Maps of Possibility Beyond the Market
It's not news that neoliberalism as our dominant reality features the market paradigm providing the language for our needs and our capacities. Are there ways the current crises force us to understand the terrain and topography of politics and life in a different way?
9 May, 3 pm | Ideology and the Limit
When political campaigns declare ideological victories, what does that mean? What are the functions, limits, and possibilities of ideology and our self-awareness as particular kinds of citizens and subjects?
16 May, 3 pm | Battles and Wars, Friends & Enemies
This session turns to questions of solidarity and the makeup of our political struggles, and the relations to others that arise within and energise them. It also speaks to the nature of battles and wars lost and won, whether in the everyday or in the realpolitik of empire.
16 May, 3 pm | “Be Ashamed to Let it Die”: End(s) Revisited
This last session of the series discusses what happens in the aftermath of campaigns, movements, institutions, and crises.
HOW TO JOIN:
Join our Falsework via Discord
A free, user-friendly voice communication system
(Doesn't require an account or any software downloads!)
1. Follow this link to join our call: https://discord.gg/KR7gZJH
2. Enter a username (this is how the rest of the group will be able to identify you)
3. Check the ReCaptcha Box (this verifies that you are a real person joining our call)
4. When given the option to create an account, click anywhere on the gray space outside the account box on your screen.
5. Double-click the “Saturday Studio Sessions" Voice Channel (on the left-hand side of your screen). This will allow you to talk and listen to others.
6. You're all set! Don't forget to mute yourself when you are not speaking, and feel free to use the chat box to type notes, share files, etc.