Andrey Velikanov. Final lecture. The exile of the missing letters

DESCRIPTION

In the final lecture of the course, Andrey Velikanov discusses the value of categories and things in philosophy.

Several letters of the Russian alphabet have not been included in the lecture course. The reason for that is simple—either there are no words starting with those letters, or none of them are philosophical terms. To prioritize certain things and ignore the rest is only natural for human mind. But can philosophy choose to leave something aside and not deal with it? Gilles Deleuze argued that it is one of the tasks of philosophy to establish relations between different singularities. When two singularities meet, what appears first is what Deleuze calls ‘the dark precursor’, and only then the lightning strikes.

‘[Philosophy] is not reflection, because no one needs philosophy to reflect on anything. It is thought that philosophy is being given a great deal by being turned into the art of reflection, but actually it loses everything. Mathematicians, as mathematicians, have never waited for philosophers before reflecting on mathematics, nor artists before reflecting on painting or music. So long as their reflection belongs to their respective creation, it is a bad joke to say that this makes them philosophers’. (Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari. What Is Philosophy?)

ABOU THE LECTURER

Andrey Velikanov is a philosopher, art theorist, and artist. His publications on art and cultural theory include Am I a Trembling Simulacrum, or Do I Have the Right? (NLO, 2007). He has taught at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russian State University for the Humanities, UNIC Institute, Wordshop Communications Academy, Moscow 1905 Art Academy, MediaArtLab Open School, Center of Avant-Garde at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, and Free Workshops Art School, and regularly gives talks and takes part in discussions at various venues. He is also a recipient of several media art awards and prizes including Ostranenie (Germany), DADANET (Russia), Art on the Net (Japan), TrashArt (Russia), Southwest Interactive Festival (U.S.A.), and Split (Croatia).

HOW TO TAKE PART

Free admission.

Participants in the study group will be expected to spend extra time on further reading and studies, individually as well as in the group. 

Information about the course and admission to the group.