Nov 16, 2020 ~ How To Undo Things With Theory ~ Élan Locomotif by Ana Teixeira Pinto
Élan Locomotif
In the early twentieth century the rebellion against the scientism of the nineteenth century cohered around Vitalism, a school of thought that opposed the vital to the mechanical. But Vitalist thinkers did not identify the mechanical as technology, rather as a modality of thought, adjacent to pragmatism. As a result, early modern movements like the Futurists could be, at once, Vitalist and technophillic. For F.T. Marinetti technology had little to do with efficiency. It was rather an extraorganic organ, the fruit of the male ovary, which is the mind. In vitalist technophilia, as Donna V. Jones argues, the body qua vehicle for life must be destroyed in order to be replaced by the superior machine, the optimal conduit for the Will.
The legacies of colonialism tend to find expression in geopolitical schemas and the racial ordering of social outcomes, but underlying and sustaining these are economies of time that persist largely unquestioned. Burning the old in order to birth the new is a modern trope organized entirely by the technological scheme. This can illuminate the nexus between fascism and nihilism, but also the wider imbrication of metaphysical predicates and colonial formations, which permeate technophilic discourse.
Ana Teixeira Pinto is a writer and cultural theorist based in Berlin and a member of DAI's Theory Circuit.
The evening will be moderated by Florian Göttke, senior coordinator of How To Things With Theory.
PRACTICALITIES
Where: LIVESTREAMED in the presence of the DAI community, this month residing under strict Covid-19 safety measures, in Oldebroek, in the woods of the East-Netherlands. The program will be presented to the DAI students as part of DAI Week 2 in 2020-2021. We warmly invite you to join us from your homes.
When: Monday November 16 at 20pm CET
Livestream ‘Check In’ at 19:50pm CET
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE LIVESTREAM
(Please keep your camera and mic turned off during online attendance)