Keynote by Graham Harman: Everything Is Not Connected

Keynote by Graham Harman: Everything Is Not Connected

Date: 
02.02.2012 18:00
Edition: 
2012
Format: 
Conference
Location: 
HKW
Auditorium
Image by Brechtje Keulen
Image by Brechtje Keulen

in/compatible system: The idea that everything is interconnected has become a staple of intellectual life. As a related phenomenon, “contextualisation” is now the method of first resort throughout the humanities. This lecture opposes the general trend of emphasising systems and wholes over autonomous individuals.

in/compatible systems

 

Keynote by Graham Harman (us)
Moderated by Christopher Salter (ca/de)

 

The idea that everything is interconnected has become a staple of intellectual life. As a related phenomenon, “contextualisation” is now the method of first resort throughout the humanities. This lecture opposes the general trend of emphasising systems and wholes over autonomous individuals. Among the greatest drawbacks of holistic ontology is its inability to explain disruptions and surprises in any system it studies. At best, one posits some sort of “materiality” lying outside all formatted systems that serves as their underground source of change, a theory that fails for a variety of reasons. The only alternative is to adopt an object-oriented model of fully formatted entities lying beyond the grasp of the human mind and even of each other. After providing some theoretical background for this claim, I will consider several recent political phenomena that are better understood by an object-oriented approach than a holistic one.

 

(Image:Brechtje Keulen)

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