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DECISIONS, DECISIONS - ART AND CITIZENSHIP
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
(OR HOW HANNAH ARENDT AND CARL SCHMIDT CAN HELP US THINK THROUGH ART AND CITIZENSHIP)
The seminar sets up encounters with two controversial figures (Arendt and Schmitt), who can help us to think about the overlaps of artistic and civic lives – their insights seem especially pertinent for the particular state of ideological confusion in which we find ourselves today. Both the artist and the citizen have to arrive at crucial, life changing decisions. Some say that the processes of getting there are as important as the actual choices made. Others look for the decisive action and see intent or prior deliberations as beside the point. But what constitutes action and where does coming together to discuss and deliberate – something we do a lot of in a seminar – fit in? Throughout we’ll keep in mind specific dilemmas and tensions: between contemplation and action, between conversation(ism) and decision(ism).[1]
Students are asked to commit to 6 morning seminars, spread over two separate weeks, and at least two group critiques that will happen in the afternoon of the same days. The first seminar will be a screening, possibly open to a broader public. I will also do an evening lecture on the first day to introduce myself and the broader themes of the seminar.
WEEK 4
NOV. 9
Screening + Discussion (10-13)
Screening of Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, which reflects on themes at hand with deep humor. (This parodic film also casts the shadow of political theology, which resurfaces in a very different way Carl Schmitt).
Lecture & Discussion (14-16) this can also be in the evening
“Decisions, Decisions” by Monika Szewczyk
The lecture will review aspects of my on-going project “Art of Conversation” and introduce a new chapter where Marcel Duchamp, Carl Schmitt and Hannah Arendt come to the proverbial dinner party…
NOV. 10 & 11
Seminars (10-13)
Hannah Arendt - Close Reading & Discussion (readings to be emailed to participants in PDF form 2 weeks prior, )
We depart from Hannah Arendt’s distinction between the vita activa and the vita contemplativa – and debate the problems of civic/artistic decision making which surface.
Group Crits (14-17)
2-3 artists to present work Each artist should nominate one person to introduce them; each discussion of work will last for about an hour
WEEK 47
NOV. 23-25
Review lecture 13 -15:
While reviewing Arendt we will foreground the question: Does Carl Schmidt's doctrine of decisionism -- the idea that politics must be founded on clear decision making, which he sees obscured by parliamentary processes -- point to a blind spot in Arendt’s theorization of the ‘space of appearance’? How do their models combine to enlighten us about the decisions that drive our engagement with art?
Seminars
Carl Schmitt - Close Reading & Discussion (readings to be emailed to participants in PDF form 2 weeks prior)
Schmitt is an apologist for decisionism, which was not only ammunition for National Socialism, but also seems to be in wide application in several political formations today – not only the nationalist right, but also global financiers and maybe even certain professionals in the arts. We’ll pay attention to the tensions between Schmitt’s distinction of conversation vs decision and Arendt’s distinction of contemplation vs action. Chantal Mouffe’s text on Schmidt (to be read in between the weeks of seminar) will help us use his writing creatively.
Sign up for tutorials at the information board, 4th floor Kunstakademiet.
LIKELY READINGS
Readings will most likely be from The Origins of Totalitarianism or “Reflections on Little Rock” + Introduction to The Human Condition if not already covered.
[Background reading: Andreas Kalyvas: “FROM THE ACT TO THE DECISION: Hannah Arendt and the Question of Decisionism” Political Theory Vol 32 No 3 June 2004 320-346]
Carl Schmidt, Political Theology, with close attention to last chapter which we’ll read together. Might also include excerpts form The Concept of the Political.
Background reading: Chantal Mouffe, “Schmidt and the Paradox of Liberal Democracy” in Chantal Mouffe: The Democratic Paradox (London: Verso, 2009 [first published in 2000])
Monika Szewczyk (PL/CA) lives and works in Berlin and Rotterdam. Following studies in International Relations (BA) and Art History (MA) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, she split her time between writing, curating, editing and teaching. Since 2008, she has been head of publications at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and a core tutor at Piet Zwart Institute for postgraduate studies and research, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam. Books (co)edited, while at Witte de With, include On (Surplus) Value in Art by Diedrich Diederichsen, the first of the Reflections Series published by Witte de With with Sternberg Press; monographs on Manon de Boer and Ian Wallace; Source Books on Geoffrey Farmer, Sung Hwan Kim, Billy Apple® and Edith Dekyndt; several artists books as well as the critical readers Meaning Liam Gillick (co-published with The MIT Press and the institutions organizing Liam Gillick: Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario in 2009) and Rotterdam Dialogues: The Critics, The Curators, The Artist (co-edited with the organizers of the three symposia and co-published with post editions, Rotterdam). Szewczyk has published essays on contemporary art in numerous catalogues and journals, among them Afterall, frieze (both London), MOUSSE (Milan), C Magazine (Toronto), Art Papers (Atlanta), A Prior (Ghent) for which she was a contributing editor between 2007- 2009, as well as e-flux journal online, which has published her ongoing essay on the politics and aesthetics of discourse in art and civic society entitled Art of Conversation.
She was previously in Bergen in 2009 to contribute to the Bergen Biennial Conference, both as a respondent and a moderator, and later to give a lecture at the Bergen Kunsthall about her Art of Conversation research. The Kunsthall’s upcoming ten year anniversary publication will also feature an essay by her about the role of publishing in this and other art institutions.
[1] I’m bringing to the table materials that I am currently processing, while working on a third installment of the Art of Conversation series of essays, which looks at the chattering classes and the creative classes…I’d like to approach this as a workshop where the students also bring in current projects and use the space of the seminar to develop existing concerns/obsessions.
Arbeidsform:
Krav til forkunnskaper:
Kurset starter 09.11.2011 / Uke 45, og varer til 25.11.2011 / Uke 47
Sted: sted
Tilbyder: Akademiet
Målgruppe: Alle studenter
Årstrinn: Alle årstrinn
Antall plasser: 50
Faglig stab: