Godofredo Pereira: SAVAGE OBJECTS
Savage Objects is part of the project Objectology – a wide research on the emergence of non-human actors within a pos-humanist thought. By framing this new paradigm not only within academic discourse, but also within object-research in fields ranging from legal forums, territorial narratives and artistic practices, speculation about objects and things becomes a discussion about conflicting ecologies of thought. This project started taking shape in early 2010 after a cicle of seminars and performances by the name of Urban Totemism organized by SOOPA in Porto, and was particularly informed by the discussions that took place within the colective residency Terror of the Object, in April 2011, organized by DETRITOS as part of Ghost, a residency in Atelier Real, Lisboa. From these encounters and collaborations the idea of bringing together some of the exciting contemporary research into objects and things begun to emerge, and ultimately became the project Objectology, within Guimarães – European Capital of Culture 2012. Objectology consists of the production of a book edited in both Portuguese and English, around the idea of material resistance entitled Savage Obejcts; and of a seminar, Objects, Practices and Territories, focusing the role of non-human agents within legal and political forums.
BOOK
Book Launch
2012 May, 3th – 17:30
Sociedade Martins Sarmento, Guimarães
Presentations by editor Godofredo Pereira and writer Ken Hollings
What is to be gained by arguing that objects speak? What do recent turns to the non-human and to things have in common? And what conflicts are emerging within the apparently consensual removal of the human from the centre of the problem of knowledge? Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in objects, things, and the non-human – a gradual departure from the domination of text, language, and discourse in previous decades, or, as is often said, a move away from the human as the central point of reference for thinking the world. The claim that there is a consensual turn is compounded by the emergence of numerous publications on non-human actors in fields as diverse as archaeology, science studies, anthropology, philosophy, history, art, and architecture; works in which the divide between nature and culture or between humans and non-humans is effaced, where complex assemblages of people and things challenge thought procedures, and where the ground upon which modernity itself was founded becomes the object of contention. However, if we look closely at the different ways in which these topics are being discussed, the image of a uniform turn immediately disappears; we find that recent attempts to emancipate objects are contingent upon and differentiated by the practices in which they emerge. With this in mind, the present book tries for the first time to bring together several different forums in which objects are being discussed anew, suggesting that the conflicts arising from fortuitous encounters between researchers might be more productive than a consensual turn to post-humanism
The book takes as its point of departure two well-worn notions, objects and savages, specifically in reference to a Savage Thought that we provocatively twist upon itself, bringing to light not the thought per se but its object and the resistance this object holds to thought. We invited contributions from very different fields to respond to this provocation – from philosophers, archaeologists and anthropologists, to activists, architects and artists – to focus not only on objects themselves but also on the practices within which they are constituted and the territories they refer to. By framing these discussions within object-research as well as academic discourse – in fields ranging from textual production, legal forums, image migration, state performance, and acoustic exploration – speculation about objects and things also becomes a discussion about conflicting ecologies of thought, thus providing insight into often overlooked pragmatic and political dimensions. Ultimately, our hope is that, by bringing such diverse practices together, new lines of thought can be suggested and spaces for new alliances be forged.
Contributors: Martin Holbraad; Ayesha Hameed; Michael Taussig; Graham Harman; Bjørnar Olsen; João Maria Gusmão; Eyal Weizman; Susan Schuppli; Reza Negarestani; Jonathan Saldanha; Regina de Miguel; Marcello Maggi; Paulo Tavares, Godofredo Pereira.
Edited by Godofredo Pereira
This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
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