Essay Outline - New Directions in Contemporary Democratic Theory

8/12/2019 Essay Outline - New Directions in Contemporary Democratic Theory

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Dear Professor Lars,

Right now, my idea is to write a paper that focuses on the role of aesthetics in politics by drawing

on the new materialist and communist perspectives in contemporary democratic theory. In order to

streamline the focus of my project, I'd lie to narrow aesthetics down to the category of film and art,

with a slight digression into musical territory if time and space permit. !he thiners that I'll lie to

mae reference to in particular include Ranciere, "i#e, $assumi, Panagia and %adiou. !his list isobviously pretty e&tensive, but I believe it will give me a broad base from which to ju&tapose the

communist and new materialist perspectives. I'll try to elaborate a bit more during tomorrow's class,

but as for now, I would appreciate it if you can give me an idea as to whether or not my essay falls

within the scope of the course. nd of course, any further guidance would definitely be welcome as

well. !hans(

)enlig *ilsen,

Daniel

+ote %efore chopping down or attacing any perspective, should allow that perspective to shine

forth or be presented in the best possible light first. If not it's just polemics, not argumentation(

!he aim is to thin thereotically about social conditions.

Roadmap

- Introduction - what is esthetics/ Definition and establishment of essay boundaries

Disarticulation in a new materialist way, compared with a revolutionary dissensus ind of way, plus

0irculation of images 10onnolley vs Dean2

D - circulation more important than content

- 'elitist' and 'naive' belief in artistic disruptions

rt and words are not reducible to one or the other, but only mae sense in relation to one another

- however, there is an underlying e&cess that contains some ind of revolutionary potential

Disarticulation without circulation is not interesting, and vice-versa

3udith %utler 4 redefining the frame of what we see

5&amples- 5&it through the gift shop

- !he 6ire

- !he Ring

- !he 7reatest $ovie 5ver 8old

esthetics as a site of resistance and then focus on how they fuction as such

"i#e on esthetics and rchitecture

- %y taing something away you literally create more 1more for less2. !he same logic abounds in the

consumerist realm, albeit in an inversion that be9ueaths less for more

- !he very renunciation of pleasure turns into the pleasure of renunciation. In the same way theregulation of pleasure eventually turns into the pleasure of regulation


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$assumi

:!he second point of view is the creative, or aesthetic. 5&cept that the creative is not a point of

view. It is not a perspective on the game or on anything. It is amidst. dynamic midst. !he being of

the collective middle belonging in becoming. Perspective is the sign of a separation from change. It

is a mar of codifying capture a demarcation of the space of interruption. perspective is an anti-

event-space. 3ust as transcendence becomes a productive element of the mi& to immanence, the

anti-event space of perspective becomes a productive element of the event-space;.

Ranciere

- Over the past several years, Rancieres work has gained currency among philosophers and arttheorists as a means of using aesthetics in the service of progressive politics. The two elds,Ranciere claims, are inextricably bound, for the uestion of what society can see and hear is afundamentally political one. !nd that is not "ust a uestion of legislation#what is or is notallowed$ but a sociological one also#what, in a given social context, can come into existence,what are the limits of the seeable. %n making this argument, Ranciere shifts what we think of aspolitics from the event itself to the conditions that allow it to happen. &'ower is not so much inthe spectacle itself,( Ranciere says, &as in the racket that it authori)es.(

'anagia*+ %n Political Life, 'anagia, a professor at Trent niversity and a student of Rancieres,investigates the political import of sensation, arguing that certain aesthetic experiences can&break fresh ground( and alter how we perceive the world. -e takes as his starting point &theradical democratic moment( in ants Critique of Pure Judgment# the disarming aestheticexperience that estranges us from our ability to determine whether something is formallybeautiful. !ccording to ant, this is the transcendental moment in which we are overcome bythe immediacy of experience, and elevated to a plane of en"oyment beyond anythinguantiable. /hile these moments can take a variety of forms ++ listening to a street performerrap or walking into a Romanesue cathedral are two examples ++ the afterimages are alwaysthe same* a powerful sense of complete and unanticipated en"oyment. %n these moments, inwhich art brie0y transforms our relationship to the world, 'anagia glimpses the possibility ofdemocracy # the event that disrupts hierarchies of knowledge and reinstates the fact that

before we are political animals, we are rst sensory beings.

Okay after reading some secondary literature % think % have a slightly clearer idea of 'anagia is

driving at. 1irstly. % agree with you 2imone, that 'anagia 3he completely separates

disarticulation4perception and meaning4reconguration3. !nd % think there are two reasons

why he does that.

5. -e begins with an assumption that &the rst political act is also an aesthetic one, a

partitioning of sensation that divides the body and its organs of sense percep+tion and assigns

to them corresponding capacities for the making of sense3 61rom 'olitical 7ife of 2ensation8.

/ith this in mind, political re0ection becomes a matter of attending to the ways in which

individuals constitute themselves as sub"ect of perception.

2. In order to attend to the 'world of appearances', Panagia makes a distinction between RECOGNITION and

ADMISSION. Recognition alone, he says, is not enough because the encounter of appearances is also an event of

sensation, which disarticulate regimes of perception that establish identity. Panagia's solution therefore is admission -

where an appearance advenes upon us and we admit to it (PLS)

To address your question as to why Panagia "ignores the meaning-making capacities of words and the content of

images, in order to only focus on the technologies of images and our organs", I think the reason is because he wishes

to challenge the dominant NARRATOCRACY - the privileging of narrative as a genre for the exposition of claims and


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between Panagia and Ranciere, as I think I will be focusing a lot on these two thinkers, along with Zizek of course.

Cheers!

&government has as its purpose not theact of government itself, but the welfare of the population, the improvement

of its condition- mirrors democracy - sustained by its own discourse

topian elements are introduced, without fantasy or wish fulllment, into the construction of the ctive, yet utterlyrealistic, events

On Panagia

Drawing significant inspiration from Ranciere's wor, Davide Panagia essentially builds on the wor of

his predecessor, aiming to e&plore a :new political subjectivity; wherein :unrepresentability; is no

longer simply a failure, obstacle or burdenA but rather a :condition for democratic e9uality; 1Panagia,

=??B2. ccordingly, he believes it is aesthetic imagery that gives life to modes of representation at the

core of political thought, whilst determining the limits of representation that set out the :conditions of

possibility for critical engagement; 1Panagia, =??B2.

Panagia begins with a primary assumption that :the Crst political act is also an aesthetic one, a

partitioning of sensation that divides the body and its organs of sense perception and assigns to them

corresponding capacities for the maing of sense 1Panagia, =??E2. 6ith this in mind, political reflection

becomes a matter of attending to the ways in which individuals constitute themselves as subject of

perception. In order to attend to the :world of appearances;, Panagia maes a distinction between

:recognition; and :admission;. !he former alone, he says, is not enough because the encounter of

appearances is also an event of sensation, which disarticulate regimes of perception that establish

identity. Panagia's solution therefore is admission - where :an appearance advenes upon us and weadmit to it; 1Panagia, =??E2. 5ngaging potential sites of dislocation of subjectivity in popular culture

and the occasions of reconfiguration that such dislocations invite.

!he esthetic 5&perience

ccording to Panagia, certain aesthetic e&periences can brea fresh ground and alter the way we

perceive the world.

%efore the breaing of ground, before imaginative acts of reconfiguration, there is the dissensus ofsensation that disrupts our confidence in the correspondence between perception and signification.

Is Panagia's project incomplete/

6hile we have sufficiently established how the The Wireaptly :presents that which is not visible yet

palpable in an appearance;, thereby allowing for a political appearance to advene upon viewers,

simultaneously forcing them to admit and deal with it. Fet the 9uestion still remains as to what sort of

:ethopoetic practice; can result from such an event of advenience. In other words, following admission,

what inds of responses can be stimulated by filmic politics to challenge the dominant narratocraticmode/ 5vidently, Panagia's philosophical project is not merely a descriptive one. *owever, while

Panagia has done much to delineate the aesthetic and sensory components of political life, he does not


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really answer the 9uestion about how these translate into concrete forms and fora of political partaing,

organisation, and action.

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Essay Outline - New Directions in Contemporary Democratic Theory