When: Monday June 16th, 2014
Where: Google Hangouts and University of New South Wales (Sydney 6pm)
Speakers: Michael Marder (University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz)
Key Text at Dropbox
“Theoretical work in the humanities has been branching out for several years now (if you’ll pardon the arborial pun), striving to go beyond the traditional human subject in order to account for other types of existence and experience, including animals and autonomous machines. A new field has emerged, loosely labeled “the posthumanities,” which attempts to fill in the millennia-long blind spots caused by our own narcissism. It is interesting then that plants have, on the whole, been ignored in this intellectual rush to lobby on behalf of non-human existence.”
“While Michael Marder is not the first to broach the subject, his work entails what is perhaps the most sustained study yet to emerge from the rather esoteric world of Continental philosophy. Marder wants to forge an encounter with vegetal life, all the while respecting the alien ontology of floral ways of being. For while a shrub may not consciously ‘experience’ the world in which it grows, this does not, for Marder, mean that it is not thinking and doing in profound philosophical, and even ethical, ways.” (These quotes are from a review by Dominic Pettman. Read the full review here).
This interactive discussion with Michael Marder will orbit around one of his forthcoming essays: “For a Phytocentrism to Come.” Phytocentrism offers an opportunity for the “greening” of human consciousness, forming an alternative to the biocentric and zoocentric critiques of anthropocentrism.
Michael Marder: Official Website
