Let's Get Lost - A Walking/Reading Group on the Dismantling of Subjects and Spaces

Event Poster
Tuesday, August 5, 2014 - 10:00pm to Wednesday, August 6, 2014 - 12:00am

Hosted by Scapegoat: Architecture/Landscape/Political Economy

Responding to the proposition that we ‘get rid of ourselves’, this biweekly walking/reading group explores the spatial construction of subjectivity. Discussions focus around selected articles that highlight the contradictory values of individual freedom and private property underpinning the principle of the autonomous modern subject, as they appear in our contemporary moment of neoliberalism.

The belief in the free, autonomous subject, which emerged with 19th century Liberalism, produced the two great modern subjects: the proletariat, a worker “freed” from his or her obligations to the land, and the bourgeois owner who controlled the means and sites of production. While in our contemporary period the clear distinction between these two subjects as been blurred, we call this moment Neoliberalism because it involves of a return to Liberalism’s core principles. Contemporary economies emphasize individual creativity and self-reliance, while at the same time privatizing all public assets. It is no wonder that in the face of this contemporary political landscape, we are exploring new ways of dismantling, dissolving and erasing the self.

The journal Scapegoat: Architecture/Landscape/Political Economy has been exploring these ideas for the past four years, through its first eight issues: Property, Service, Materialism, Realism, Currency, Excess, Mexico DF/NAFTA and Incarceration. The reading group, facilitated by Adrian Blackwell and Marcin Kedzior, will examine the relationship between subjectivity and space by reading texts that have appeared in Scapegoat. For the first hour of each meeting, we will walk in the city, discussing the readings in pairs (a technique modeled on the Walking / Reading Group on Participation developed in 2013 by Ania Bas and Simone Mair). For the second hour, we will assemble in the gallery on Adrian Blackwell’s sculpture Circles Describing Spheres to connect the initial conversations.

The group will meet at Onsite Gallery, 230 Richmond St. W. from 6-8pm, every second Tuesday: August 5, August 19, September 2, September 16. Meet at Onsite Gallery, 230 Richmond St. W. To register and receive the readings please email onsite@ocadu.ca

Readings:

August 5 - The Origins of Property in Liberal Individualism
Brett Neilson and Sandro Mezzadra, Fabrica Mundi: Producing the World by Drawing Borders
Shiri Pasternak, Property in Three Registers

August 19 - Precarious Actors of Neoliberal Urbanization
Irmgard Emmelhainz, The Mexican Neoliberal Conversion and Differentiated, Homogenous Lives
AbdouMaliq Simone, Water, Politics and Design in Jakarta

September 2 - Opened by the World
Georges Bataille, The Economy Equal to the Universe
Jane Bennett and Alexander Livingston, Philosophy in the Wild: Listening to Things in Baltimore
Jesse Boon, Kids on Buildings: Echos, Mirrors, and Ghosts

September 16 - Commonism, or Caring With Others
Wendy Jacob and Gina Badger, In the Presence of Another Being
Paige Sarlin, Vulnerable Accumulation: A Practical Guide
Isabelle Stengers and Erik Bordeleau, The Care of the Possible

The reading group will be facilitated by Scapegoat’s Adrian Blackwell and Marcin Kedzior.

Venue & Address: 
Onsite [at] OCAD 230 Richmond St. W. Street Level Toronto, Ontario
Website: 
http://www.ocadu.ca/onsite  
Email: 
onsite@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
<p>416-977-6000 Ext. 265</p>
Cost: 
Free

Let's Get Lost - A Walking/Reading Group on the Dismantling of Subjects and Spaces

Event Poster
Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - 10:00pm to Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - 12:00am

Let's Get Lost - A Walking/Reading Group on the Dismantling of Subjects and Spaces: August 19, 6 to 8 p.m.

Hosted by Scapegoat: Architecture/Landscape/Political Economy

Responding to the proposition that we ‘get rid of ourselves’, this biweekly walking/reading group explores the spatial construction of subjectivity. Discussions focus around selected articles that highlight the contradictory values of individual freedom and private property underpinning the principle of the autonomous modern subject, as they appear in our contemporary moment of neoliberalism.

The belief in the free, autonomous subject, which emerged with 19th century Liberalism, produced the two great modern subjects: the proletariat, a worker “freed” from his or her obligations to the land, and the bourgeois owner who controlled the means and sites of production. While in our contemporary period the clear distinction between these two subjects as been blurred, we call this moment Neoliberalism because it involves of a return to Liberalism’s core principles. Contemporary economies emphasize individual creativity and self-reliance, while at the same time privatizing all public assets. It is no wonder that in the face of this contemporary political landscape, we are exploring new ways of dismantling, dissolving and erasing the self.

The journal Scapegoat: Architecture/Landscape/Political Economy has been exploring these ideas for the past four years, through its first eight issues: Property, Service, Materialism, Realism, Currency, Excess, Mexico DF/NAFTA and Incarceration. The reading group, facilitated by Adrian Blackwell and Marcin Kedzior, will examine the relationship between subjectivity and space by reading texts that have appeared in Scapegoat. For the first hour of each meeting, we will walk in the city, discussing the readings in pairs (a technique modeled on the Walking / Reading Group on Participation developed in 2013 by Ania Bas and Simone Mair). For the second hour, we will assemble in the gallery on Adrian Blackwell’s sculpture Circles Describing Spheres to connect the initial conversations.

The group will meet at Onsite Gallery, 230 Richmond St. W. from 6-8pm, every second Tuesday: August 5, August 19, September 2, September 16. Meet at Onsite Gallery, 230 Richmond St. W. To register and receive the readings please email onsite@ocadu.ca

Readings:

August 5 - The Origins of Property in Liberal Individualism
Brett Neilson and Sandro Mezzadra, Fabrica Mundi: Producing the World by Drawing Borders
Shiri Pasternak, Property in Three Registers

August 19 - Precarious Actors of Neoliberal Urbanization
Irmgard Emmelhainz, The Mexican Neoliberal Conversion and Differentiated, Homogenous Lives
AbdouMaliq Simone, Water, Politics and Design in Jakarta

September 2 - Opened by the World
Georges Bataille, The Economy Equal to the Universe
Jane Bennett and Alexander Livingston, Philosophy in the Wild: Listening to Things in Baltimore
Jesse Boon, Kids on Buildings: Echos, Mirrors, and Ghosts

September 16 - Commonism, or Caring With Others
Wendy Jacob and Gina Badger, In the Presence of Another Being
Paige Sarlin, Vulnerable Accumulation: A Practical Guide
Isabelle Stengers and Erik Bordeleau, The Care of the Possible

The reading group will be facilitated by Scapegoat’s Adrian Blackwell and Marcin Kedzior.

Venue & Address: 
Onsite [at] OCAD 230 Richmond St. W. Street Level Toronto, Ontario
Website: 
http://www.ocadu.ca/onsite &nbsp;
Email: 
onsite@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
<p>416-977-6000 Ext. 265</p>
Cost: 
Free