How are critical theory, artistic practice and public activism responding to the various kinds of reactionary resurgence so evident throughout the world today? Sovereign nations are behaving more and more like rogue states; and leadership of them is increasingly falling into the hands of rogues. As vast, global social movements, and as warring sovereignties, these rogues and rogue states are writing a collective suicide note that, despite their distractive denials, calls for the death of life on our planet. In this situation, critical thought takes on the task of exposing distraction, of showing it to be the shadow play that it is, and of revealing what it strives so strenuously to hide. It is from inside debates about the contemporary condition that critical theory has most to offer. This lecture will review some constructive and distractive elements within these debates, and the work by some of the artists who are making an important contribution to them.

Programme: Aesthetic Seminars Autumn 2017