ARTiculations: Redistributing the Sensible

In colloboration with PAI (The Poltical & Philiosophical Arts Initiative – Leiden University)

Taking Jacques Rancière’s critical theory of political aesthetics as a point of departure, this seminar examines the evolution of what he provocatively coined “the distribution of the sensible”—the way in which politics, including those institutions which secure public order and safeguard systems of knowledge, confines social and cultural experiences by defining what can be seen, heard, smelt, felt, and tasted—and considers how art, specifically the art in this GEMAK exhibition, contributes to and challenges past and current politico-aesthetic regimes of visibility/invisibility, audibility/inaudibility, and sayability/unsayability. Supplemented by classical and contemporary philosophical perspectives on the senses, ranging from insights from Aristotle’s De Anima to Thomas Nagel’s “What is it like to be a bat?”, the seminar includes hypothetical and hands-on experiments to test and clarify our intuitions about the relationship between sensory input and human perception, the gaps between experience and explanation, and physical, virtual, and mental strategies for interacting with the world, ultimately towards recognising the sources of common sense and appreciating the potential for a 21st-century communal sense through art.” (Cissie Fu)

PROGRAMME

 2 pm                Cissie Fu

Interactive philosophical, contextual lecture (with invitations to interrupt and interact with the audience, followed by Q&A) for about one hour, followed by

3 pm                Presentation about colour theories (Dutch spoken)

ligteringen/derooij, co-curators of Off Senses | Future Senses will tell about the fascination of artists for all sorts of colour-theories. 

Followed by a short Intermezzo of seminar theme-related trailers and/or fimclipsd triggering the discussion about sense, perception, embodiment, sci-fi, parapsychology, and imagination.

4 pm                  Panel  session (interactive with the audience)

Conversation with Marie Jeanne de Rooij & Cissie Fu and artists present about the exhibition and themes addressed.

Short biography Cissie Fu

Dr. Cissie Fu is Assistant Professor of Political Theory at the Institute for Philosophy of Leiden University and Co-Founder of the Political Arts Initiative, which invites 21st-century imag-e-nations of the political through digital technology and the creative and performing arts. After an AB in Government and Philosophy at Harvard University, she explored public interest law in Washington DC before moving to the University of Oxford for an MSt in Women’s Studies, an MSc in Political Research and Methodology, and a DPhil in Politics and International Relations. She taught political thought, jurisprudence, and ethics at Oxford and University College London prior to her arrival at Leiden, where she engages in research and teaching at the nexus of politics, performance, and philosophy.