Brian Massumi: "Animality and Abstraction" | The Nonhuman Turn Conference, May 3, 2012
Channel: Center for 21st Century Studies
Date: 2012-08-21

Brian Massumi (Philosophy, University of Montreal) delivers their talk, "Animality and Abstraction," at the Center for 21st Century Studies (UW - Milwaukee) on May 3, 2012, during The Nonhuman Turn Conference.

Introduction by Rebekah Sheldon (0:00)
Lecture (4:40)
Q&A (50:00)

Abstract: The aim of this talk is two-fold: to rethink the creative element in evolution as a positive mechanism governed by a radically different logic than that of adaptation. The analysis of creative evolution will begin from what might appear to be the least propitious starting point: instinct. Tinbergen's discussion of "supernormal stimuli" -- apparently maladaptive responses that follow a logic of intensity-seeking deformation generative of variation – will be used to extract instinct from the realm of stimulus-reflex response and resituate it in an aesthetic arena (Ruyer) alloyed with intuition (Bergson). This aesthetic element of animal life will be associated not with sexual selection (Elizabeth Grosz) but rather with play (Bateson). Bateson argues that play involves practices of lived abstraction that are an engine of evolutionary improvisation. The playful gesture brings the "supernormal" functioning of instinct into fuller and more abstract expression, preparing the way for language. The argument will remain in dialogue throughout its trajectory with Deleuze and Guattari's theories of "creative involution."

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