September 25: Fred Moten, Stefano Harney, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Manuel Callahan, and Annie Paradise

Dear seekers of more productive pleasures:

Many thanks to everyone who took part in our discussion the other week of texts by Denise Ferreira da Silva, Manuel Callahan, and Annie Paradise. We had a very useful and productive discussion, and look forward to talking to them, alongside Fred Moten and Stefano Harney…

This conversation will take place on Friday, September 25, at 4pm Pacific.

As further preparatory reading, we recommend:

  • The Undercommons, chapters 5-7:“Planning and Policy”; “Fantasy in the Hold”; and “The General Antagonism: An Interview with Stevphen Shukaitis”
  • If you have time, we also very much recommend a recent piece by Moten and Harney, “the university: last words”, which is presented and discussed here.
  • Our own discussion on Friday will take place on Zoom, of course. Because it’s 2020.

    (And from Friday, October 9 we will return to our lunchtime slot.)

    Please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is aware that new Coronavirus cases are rising again, but we are holding on to our bubble, and pleased to welcome others, so long as they wear a mask. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

    And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog, https://blogs.ubc.ca/virtualkoerners/category/blog/), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

    You will hear information about subsequent meetings very shortly.

    We look forward to seeing you next week.

    Take care, stay alert, don’t panic, keep your distance, be kind, keep calm, and carry on

September 11

Dear seekers of more productive pleasures:

Many thanks to everyone who took part in last week’s discussion about Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s The Undercommons, and who also helped us to reflect as Virtual Koerner’s moves to its new stage, a new hallway in the undercommons.

A reminder: we will now be meeting every other week, on Fridays, usually at 1pm Pacific (with one exception, detailed below).

As you know, we have some more very special guests joining us on September 25, and we are currently preparing ourselves for their visit.

As such, for our discussion this week, we propose the following two readings:

We will meet to discuss these texts on Friday, September 11, at 1pm Pacific.

All this will take place on Zoom, of course. Because it’s 2020.

Then on Friday, September 25 (at *4pm* Pacific): We will be joined by Fred Moten, Stefano Harney, Manolo Callahan, Denise Ferreira da Silva and Annie Paradise.

And from Friday, October 9 we will return to our lunchtime slot.

We are sorry if this is a little complicated. We have had to scramble a bit to find space and time as everyone becomes increasingly busy. And VK is always at the margins.

Please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is fully in Phase Four of lockdown, and we are delighted to see our “bubble” continuing to expand. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog, https://blogs.ubc.ca/virtualkoerners/category/blog/), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

You will hear information about subsequent meetings very shortly.

We look forward to seeing you next week.

Take care, stay alert, don’t panic, wear a mask, be kind, keep calm, and carry on

September 2

Many thanks to everyone who took part in last week’s discussion with Nelson Garrido and friends from Venezuela. It was a lively and productive exchange, and we thank again María Julieta Cordero for inviting him, and for organizing this cycle of discussions and readings.

Soon, we hope to upload video of the conversation to YouTube for those who missed it.

Now, though the pandemic continues unabated (here in British Columbia, where we were once so smug, we have just set a new single-day record for new cases), it seems that something like a modified normality is returning, as classes start and the Northern summer draws to a close.

We have some more very special guests joining us in a a few weeks, but first we should explain that there will be changes in Virtual Koerner’s.

  • We will have a *final* Wednesday meeting next week (September 2), at 4pm Pacific Time. We are thinking of this as closure for Virtual Koerner’s as it has existed since back in April. These have been a strange four and a half months. We are now putting them behind us.
  • We welcome everyone who has participated in this space, in one way or another, to join us and perhaps reflect on this odd period, on what we have learned, on what has gone wrong, on how we have managed to continue on nonetheless.
  • To help us think about all this (as well as in preparation for our next guests), we are recommending you read two chapters of Stefano Harney and Fred Moten’s book The Undercommons: chapter two, “The University and the Undercommons,” and chapter four, “Debt and Study.”
  • But if you are not able to do the reading, you are still very much welcome (with a drink in hand if you wish) to this special final Wednesday session of Virtual Koerner’s.

All this will take place on Zoom, of course. Because it’s 2020.

After this final Wednesday session, Virtual Koerner’s will continue, for as long as we have the energy and desire, but it will move to Friday lunchtimes (i.e. 1pm Pacific), on alternate weeks *except* for our upcoming session, featuring a gamut of special guests, which will be on a Friday at 4pm.

In other words, here is the schedule for the next few weeks:

  • Wednesday, September 2 (4pm Pacific): Final Wednesday session; reading two chapters from The Undercommons
  • Friday, September 11 (1pm Pacific): First Virtual Koerner’s in its new incarnation
  • Friday, September 25 (4pm Pacific): We will be joined by Fred Moten, Stefano Harney, Manolo Callahan, Denise Ferreira da Silva and Annie Paradise
  • Friday, October 9 (1pm Pacific): We return to our new schedule

We are sorry if this is a little complicated. We have had to scramble a bit to find space and time as everyone becomes increasingly busy. And VK is always at the margins.

Please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is fully in Phase Four of lockdown, and we are delighted to see our “bubble” continuing to expand. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog, https://blogs.ubc.ca/virtualkoerners/category/blog/), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might, like María Julieta’s current cycle, include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

You will hear information about subsequent meetings very shortly.

We look forward to seeing you this week.

Take care, stay alert, don’t panic, wear a mask, be kind, keep calm, and carry on.

Nelson Garrido

Thanks to everyone who took part in last week’s discussion of Nelson Garrido’s work. It was an interesting and thought-provoking conversation, and we will have many questions for Nelson when he joins us on Wednesday.

Many thanks again to María Julieta Cordero for inviting him, and for organizing this cycle of discussions and readings.

In the meantime, recent blog posts include two from Rodolfo Ortiz:

This week, we will be looking at more images and texts by and from Garrido, in anticipation of our discussion with him.

Then we recommend two other texts:

We also continue to recommend an article that we discussed last Wednesday:

We will meet on Wednesday, August 26, from 4pm Pacific.

All this will take place on Zoom, of course. Because it’s 2020.

As always, however, feel free to join us later in the evening (from around 5:30pm onwards), without any expectation of having done any of the reading, and drink in hand if you so wish, for a more social check in.

Also as always, please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is fully in Phase Four of lockdown, and we are delighted to see our “bubble” continuing to expand. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might, like María Julieta’s current cycle, include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

You will hear information about subsequent meetings very shortly.

We look forward to seeing you this week.

August 19

Thanks to everyone who took part in last week’s discussion of Butler and Appelbaum. There were fewer participants than sometimes, but it was an engaging and productive discussion about representation, photography, and violence.

Recent blog posts include:

  • Ricardo on Butler: “Criticism of photography should go beyond identifying the forcible frame, since knowing about this frame won’t stop us from eating from the trashcan of ideology everyday.”
  • Jorge on Fogwill’s Los pichiciegos: “La postura de los pichiciegos de Fogwill frente al proyecto argentino tampoco es progresista, pero sí es radical: cavar un hueco en la tierra, desconsiderando que afuera existen los países, como insectos inmundos. ¿Es esa es la auténtica y pobre postura del criollo lationamericano?”

This week, we continue with the cycle of readings that will lead up to a visit from the Venezuelan photographer, Nelson Garrido. This cycle is organized by María Julieta Cordero. This is a series that deals with photography and the representation of violence, among other issues.

The following is this week’s reading, the one primary, the others secondary or optional:

We will meet on Wednesday, August 19, from 4pm Pacific.

All this will take place on Zoom, of course. Because it’s 2020.

As always, however, feel free to join us later in the evening (from around 5:30pm onwards), without any expectation of having done any of the reading, and drink in hand if you so wish, for a more social check in.

Also as always, please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is fully in Phase Four of lockdown, and we are delighted to see our “bubble” continuing to expand. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might, like María Julieta’s current cycle, include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

You will hear information about subsequent meetings very shortly.

We look forward to seeing you this week.

August 12

Thanks to everyone who took part in this week’s discussion of Cortázar’s “Las babas del diablo” and Antonioni’s Blow-Up. It was both productive and fun, I felt. We touched on a lot of topics: representation, violence, gender, subjectivity, machines, objectification… Personally, I remain haunted by the movie’s final scene, the invisible tennis ball, the man lost in the park with his camera on the ground.

We also have two recent blog posts:

  • From Ricardo, on Cortázar and Antonioni. His conclusion: “Si el arte tiene un lugar en la sociedad capitalista, no es sólo el de bombear agua fuera de la nave que se hunde, sino el de dejar de apuntar a las nubes para emprender la línea de fuga ya no hacia el cielo, sino hacia la inmensidad de la tierra.”
  • From George, on Sztulwark and Mundo grúa. His question: “To what degree is Sztulwark’s redemptive reader-bricoleur, friend a venir (etc.) colored by the fantasy of disjunction and the reaction against neoliberal injunctions?”

Meanwhile, our conversation with Sztulwark is on YouTube.

And we are hoping to publish an edited version of that conversation. If you would like to help with the transcription and editing, please be in touch.

This week, we continue with the cycle of readings that will lead up to a visit from the Venezuelan photographer, Nelson Garrido. This cycle is organized by María Julieta Cordero. This is a series that deals with photography and the representation of violence, among other issues.

We have two readings, one primary, the other secondary or optional:

We will meet on Wednesday, August 12, from 4pm Pacific. If you only have time to read the story (or only have time to watch the film), that is of course fine.

All this will take place on Zoom, of course. Because it’s 2020. Please note that we have a new link for our meetings.

As always, however, feel free to join us later in the evening (from around 5:30pm onwards), without any expectation of having read the text or seen the movie, and drink in hand if you so wish, for a more social check in.

Also as always, please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is fully in Phase Four of lockdown, and we are delighted to see our “bubble” continuing to expand. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might, like María Julieta’s current cycle, include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

You will hear information about subsequent meetings very shortly.

We look forward to seeing you this week.

Take care, stay alert, don’t panic, wear a mask, be kind, keep calm, and carry on

August 3

Thanks to everyone who took part in last week’s discussion with Diego Sztulwark. People have commented to me that it was one of the best sessions we have had to date, and most of the credit for that goes to Ana Vivaldi, for putting together an excellent and very coherent series of readings and conversations in preparation for Diego’s visit. Once again, moreover, I am struck by the continuities in the topics and questions across the last several months, at the very least from Alberto Moreiras’s visit to the present.

Meanwhile, as always, Ricardo has put up some ungodly thoughts on our blog: Notas a La ofensiva sensible: neoliberalismo, populismo y el reverso de lo político de Diego Sztulwark (2).

And once again, I want to remind everyone that you are all invited to contribute short texts (c. 500 words) to the blog, whether about our readings and discussions, or on any other topic that you want to share with us. Please do avail yourselves of this opportunity.

We now move to a new cycle or series of readings, which will lead up to a visit from the Venezuelan photographer, Nelson Garrido. This cycle is organized by María Julieta Cordero. This is a series that will deal with photography and the representation of violence, among other issues.

We begin, as is becoming a bit of a habit, with some film and literature.

  • Michelangelo Antonioni, Blow-Up (1966). More information about the film here. And you can download a (high-definition) copy here.
  • Julio Cortázar, “Las babas del diablo” (from Las armas secretas, 1959). This is the story on which Antonioni’s film is (rather loosely) based, and it can be found here.

These are both “classics,” but introduce us to some of the themes we will be tackling over the next few weeks.

We will meet on Wednesday, August 5, from 4pm Pacific. If you only have time to read the story (or only have time to watch the film), that is of course fine.

All this will take place on Zoom, of course. Because it’s 2020.

As always, however, feel free to join us later in the evening (from around 5:30pm onwards), without any expectation of having read the text or seen the movie, and drink in hand if you so wish, for a more social check in.

Also as always, please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is fully in Phase Four of lockdown, and we are delighted to see our “bubble” continuing to expand. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might, like María Julieta’s current cycle, include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

You will hear information about subsequent meetings very shortly.

We look forward to seeing you this week.

Take care, stay alert, don’t panic, wear a mask, be kind, keep calm, and carry on

July 29: Diego Sztulwark

Thanks to everyone who took part in last week’s discussion. It was, I thought, a very useful conversation about Diego Sztulwark’s book, La ofensiva sensible, which, in combination with the other preparatory readings and discussions over the past few weeks, should set us up for a very interesting and productive visit from Diego himself this coming Wednesday. Many thanks again to Ana Vivaldi for organizing a great series of readings and meetings. I for one very much look forward to this week’s final session.

Meanwhile, Ricardo continues his habit of writing a blog post at an ungodly hour following our Wednesday meetings. Here is his latest: “Notas a algunos fragmentos de La ofensiva sensible: neoliberalismo, populismo y el reverso de lo político de Diego Sztulwark”.

As Ricardo puts it: “Por lo último que se lee en el fragmento de Sztulwark y por las entrevistas de Contra ofensiva sensible, uno puede intuir que a pesar de la reproducción alocada del modelo neoliberal, cada forma de reproducción social no sólo carga con su dosis de abyección, pero también con las herramientas para la recodificación de una potencia secreta que escape de la lógica del estado y del capital.”

The reading suggested for this week is the third and final chapter of La ofensiva sensible: Neoliberalismo, populismo y el reverso de lo político.

You may also wish to look at chapter two, as an optional, extra reading.

(Many thanks to Gwen Pare for the scanning!)

We will meet on Wednesday, July 29, from 4pm Pacific.

All this will take place on Zoom, of course. Because it’s 2020.

As always, however, feel free to join us later in the evening (from around 5:30pm onwards), without any expectation of having read the texts, and drink in hand if you so wish, for a more social check in.

Also as always, please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is fully in Phase Four of lockdown, and we are delighted to see our “bubble” continuing to expand. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might, like Ana’s current cycle, include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

You will hear information about our next cycle of meetings very shortly.

We look forward to seeing you this week.

July 22

Thanks to everyone who took part in this week’s discussion. It was great to have more new people joining us, this week from California and the mines of New Mexico.

I was very struck by the links between our readings and discussions we have had over the past several months… the connections with themes raised by Alberto, Erin, and Patrick, for instance. And also, as I said, how timely the work of the Colectivo Situaciones feels (once again). The question they raise is the one we’ve been asking from the very start of Virtual Koerner’s: how to think within the situation, our situation being (at least in part) that of the pandemic. And I think the model of militant research, research without an object, is quite similar to what we have been (accidentally) doing here. We know how we are starting, but we don’t know where we will end up, or who “we” will be when we do…

Meanwhile, Ricardo has gotten into the habit, it seems, of writing a blog post at an ungodly hour following our Wednesday meetings. Check out what he’s written: “Situaciones del ‘profesorado’ en tiempos de COVID”. Other blog posts are here.

This coming week we continue with the series of sessions organized by Ana Vivaldi (once again, many thanks!) in preparation for the visit of Diego Sztulwark at the end of the month.

Now we begin reading texts directly by Sztulwark himself, specifically from his recent book, La ofensiva sensible: Neoliberalismo, populismo y el reverso de lo político:

Optional but very much recommended are also two videos dealing with the book:

We will meet on Wednesday, July 22, from 4pm Pacific.

All this will take place on Zoom, of course. Because it’s 2020.

As always, however, feel free to join us later in the evening (from around 5:30pm onwards), without any expectation of having read the texts, and drink in hand if you so wish, for a more social check in.

Also as always, please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is fully in Phase Four of lockdown, and we are delighted to see our “bubble” continuing to expand. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might, like Ana’s current cycle, include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

We look forward to seeing you next week.

July 15

First, I must apologize for how late this post is. I was out of town last week, and more distracted than I anticipated. (Yes, within British Columbia we can travel! Even if we can never again leave this beautiful province…)

In any case, apologies again that I am sending this week’s reading with so little anticipation. I think you’ll find, however, that the reading is not too taxing, and certainly well worth our while.

Before that, I’d like once again to thank Ana Vivaldi for organizing the current cycle of readings, leading up to our conversation with Diego Sztulwark. We had a good discussion last week about Fogwill and Siete cajas (and for those who have not yet managed to see the movie, I especially recommend it). There were fewer of us than in recent weeks, but the discussion was no less lively for all that. Both texts are key, I think, to understanding not only neoliberalism but also (as we said) the possibility of a “neoliberalism from below.”

Ricardo posted on the blog some afterthoughts from our discussion, which I highly recommend to you: “Una breve historia de enredos entre el dinero y la mercancía”. In his words:

“En el caos del mercado parece siempre sugerente la emergencia de una práctica o de un sujeto que contenga ese caos, que quizá evite el enredo constituyente de la narración (pero tal vez, sin ese enredo, no haya narración).”

This week the texts proposed are both from Colectivo Situaciones, the collective with with Sztulwark was associated for many years. To my mind, quite frankly, Situaciones produced some of the most important reflections on politics and theory from Latin America of the past 25 years. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that they are among the few indispensable thinkers from the region in that time. (Perhaps we can talk about why that may be so…)

Ana has proposed two texts for us, both about what we might call “methodology,” which Situaciones saw in terms of “militant research.”

(If you want my 2c., this might be usefully contrasted with the interest, over this same period, in “decolonial” methodologies… Again, this might be the beginning of our discussion?)

One is longer than the other: read either or both for the “intellectual” part of our meeting.

  1. “Algo más sobre la Militancia de Investigación Notas al pié sobre procedimientos e (in)decisiones” (2004)
  2. “Romanticismo. En respuesta a los sociólogos ‘realistas’” (2009)

Both these texts are found on the “Lobo suelto” blog, which is well worth reading in general.

You may well also want to take a look at the earlier (2002), perhaps foundational, text by Situaciones on the same topic: “On Method”.

We will meet tomorrow (I know, apologies again), on Wednesday, July 15, from 4pm Pacific.

As always, however, feel free to join us later in the evening (from around 5:30pm onwards), without any expectation of having read the texts, for a more social check in.

Also as always, please do feel free to invite others (whether they are in Vancouver or not) to join us. Virtual Koerner’s is fully in Phase Four of lockdown, and we are delighted to see our “bubble” continuing to expand. If anyone wants to be added to the list, they can be in touch with me.

And again, we very much welcome and invite suggestions of texts, speakers, discussion topics, and so on. We especially welcome a) texts written by VK participants (short texts can be posted to our blog, https://blogs.ubc.ca/virtualkoerners/category/blog/), and b) suggestions for linked “cycles” of sessions that might, like Ana’s current cycle, include different kinds of texts on a common theme.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

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