Event overview
Riccardo Baldissone, University of Westminster, presents his later work on 'The present of theory: Another attempt at a compositionist manifesto'
Fifteen years ago, Latour put forth a largely unsuccessful compositionist manifesto. With his unmistakable humour, he seemed to anticipate this outcome by depicting his proposal as a mere attempt. Yet Latour’s bold sidelining of both modernities and critique in the name of a Nietzschean (and Deleuzean) invitation to compose the world(s) was worth endorsing, and even more now than then. Both the modern pretension to describe the world as it is, and its parasitic critical boast to reveal how the world is not rely on the supposed ability of written texts to mirror the world itself. The recent appropriation of writing by machines is at last ridiculing this alleged exclusive human ability, which is also the touchstone of tertiary education assessment. Such a cultural earthquake calls for a redirection of writing as an action-oriented human activity and a major tool for re-composing the world(s). Manifestos can then be well reactivated as calls not so much to arms, but to tools for action.
Riccardo Baldissone is Fellow at the University of Westminster, London.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 27 Feb 2025 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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