Jane Bennet: "Systems and Things" | The Nonhuman Turn Conference, May 4, 2012
Channel: Center for 21st Century Studies
Date: 2012-08-21

Jane Bennett (Political Science, Johns Hopkins) delivers their talk, "Systems and Things: A Materialist and an Object-Oriented Philosopher Walk into a Bar . . . ," at the Center for 21st Century Studies (UW - Milwaukee) on May 4, 2020 during The Nonhuman Turn Conference.

Introduction by Kennan Ferguson(0:00)
Lecture (2:50)
Q&A (35:00)

Abstract: My goal is to explore the possibility of a notion of "sympathy" appropriate to a "new
materialist" ontology. This would be a sympathy that applies not only to interhuman encounters but also to those everyday, intense flashes of connection between human and nonhuman bodies. How to characterize the ordinary event of bodies resonating with and being contagious to other bodies? Is it possible or desirable to conceive of a sympathy outside of a frame of anthropocentrism or divine design? To pursue this project, I draw upon Spinoza’s notion of affective bodies, Walt Whitman’s practice of listing (both as cataloguing and as leaningtoward), and some “new materialist” works of contemporary art.

The Nonhuman Turn Conference Website: http://www.c21uwm.com/nonhumanturn/
C21 Website: https://uwm.edu/c21/