Now announcing, MATTER IN FLUX, an online study group co-hosted by The World in Which We Occur and a roster of invited guests.
MATTER IN FLUX is a new online initiative co-led by the hosts of The World in Which We Occur. It is premised on the notion that in order to respond to emergent political and ecological challenges we need to broaden our channels of exchange. Research, reading, and analysis requires time, and in the current work panorama which most of us co-inhabit today there is seldom enough of it. Establishing modes of inquiry can lead to a better understanding of our world and how we can step back and reflect. Posing questions also helps us to observe, and meditate on, how our environments are mutating, under which circumstances, while triggering steps for future action.
Our intention is that the MATTER IN FLUX online study group will probe these conditions. Broadly, it will look at the history of materiality and examine the scientific criteria that sets matter into motion, so as to grant agency to social inquiry and conceptual labor. Inherent to the study group’s research line and interrogative approach are: politically enmeshed scientific affairs in ecological politics and policy, economies of transition, history of science, material studies, and gender studies in science. MATTER IN FLUX will pay particular attention to metabolic transactions, plasmatic fictions, and various degrees of para-scientific approaches. Fiction will also play a role in the consideration and portrayal of these subjects.
Please write to us by February 6 at twwwoarchive@gmail.com to express you interest in joining the group by responding to the question below. Also, send a description of yourself in one sentence (your research aims). You are not required to be a specialist of the drafted themes to participate in the group. However, you should express a capacity to tease apart the concepts at hand with intellectual rigor, aptitude, and passion. If you have a question about the group, please do write to us, we are eager to hear from you.
Terms:
–Participants are encouraged from different sectors and parts of the world.
–1 session per month at 19:00 (CET time) on the last Tuesday of the month. Sessions are comprised of reading, analysis, and discussion.
–Sessions begin with an introduction by one group member, followed by a collective discussion.
–Specific sessions will be accompanied by occasional invited guests, including but not limited to authors of assigned texts.
–Sessions are held online at Google Hangouts. Please have a good connection.
–The group will consist of 8-10 participants.
–There is no participation fee.
Application to MATTER IN FLUX is designed for anyone interested in the concerns outlined in this call, encouraging diverse approaches to research methodologies that stretch beyond typical academic profiling. Participants are expected to commit to all sessions considering that only 8 to 10 participants will be accepted. Participants will be notified via email by mid February with the first session’s reading list. The first session commences on February 27th.
We are currently exploring the possibility of quarterly touchdown events in different art and research centers, establishing a circle of fellow institutions. Dates and partners will be announced soon.
Please apply by answering this question at your own will in one paragraph:
How would you diminish the amount of baby waste on the planet? In your description please consider contextual changes, transformation of substances, and infrastructures of transfer. Feel free to embrace fiction and hard science or whatever suits your fancy.
Thank you!
Jennifer Teets and Margarida Mendes, co-hosts, The World in Which We Occur, January 2018.