Karl Baldacchino
Primary page content
William Hogarth - Industry and Idleness, Plate 1; The Fellow 'Prentices at their Looms (1750)
Karl's MPhil/PhD Art research project
Cartographies of indifference to power: resistance in contemporary critical thought
The turn of the century has been marked by a renewed interest in the practices and theories of political resistance. In contemporary critical thought, the question of resistance has been explored from countless perspectives, reflecting diverse theoretical approaches and political commitments. In my PhD project I am interested in closely examining how some of the most influential contemporary left-oriented theories of resistance appear to be fundamentally shaped by an ambivalent attitude of indifference towards power.
I will argue that indifference can at times be theoretically observed becoming a main source for thinking resistance. In this context, it is suggested that the dynamic relationship that forms between indifference and resistance has been severely overlooked and insufficiently analysed, even if it continues to develop and renew itself in some of the most influential critical theories of resistance.
Thus, through my dissertation I propose an investigation of the emergence of this relationship between thinking resistance and an attitude of indifference to power, as well as the mapping and analysis of its continuous development throughout contemporary critical theories.