"The seminar as a form for thinking" Marsh 6, 2:30 - 5:30 pm

THE SEMINAR AS A FORM FOR THINKING

FSL visiting SARs conference Loitering with Intent: A Feast of Research
http://www.uniarts.se/in-english/loitering-with-intent-5-7-march

 

Thursday 6 March from 14:30 till 17:30.

Stockholm University of Arts, Linnégatan 87

 

OBS! ANNOUNCE YOUR PARTICIPATION AT magnuswo.fsl@gmail.com

 

What once was called “the public sphere” is transformed and re-shaped in our time. The digitalization and the massive production of information make distribution an act that takes more and more of our time. To refer, to link, to inform, to summarize, to brief, tends to replace other forms of thinking in intellectual and artistic life.

 

The seminar, understood as a form for “thinking together”, have roots far back in human civilization. The coming together to tell stories, to discuss common matters, to practice religion or rites, to study, to create or to play – all these fundamental human forms and experiences are actualized in the tradition of the seminar.

 

In our era of distribution the seminar is often degraded and devolved to a rational way for communicating information and results. In the academic world profiled thinkers invite each other to exchange 30 minutes papers and talks, plus 15 minutes discussions.

 

Usually the FSL-seminar last over three days and includes, lectures, performances, discussions, eating and dancing together. THE SEMINAR at the SAR conference only last for three hours but will reflect upon possible forms for and conditions of a seminar responsible to its epistemological potential and complex history.

 

Content

1.      Read the essay "The seminar as a form for thinking” (by Magnus William-Olsson). Read or downlod it at: http://fsl-forskarseminariet.blogspot.se/2014/02/the-seminar-as-form-for-thinking.html

2.      Lecture by Irina Sandomirskaja on “thinking alone and thinking together

Abstract:Thinking in front of a Mirror: Dialogue in Reflection Mikhail Bakhtin's short fragment called "Man in front of a Looking Glass" (1943) ends with an enigmatic statement about the paradox of reflection: "Gazing at me [from the mirror] are somebody else's eyes." In my presentation, I will analyze this formula to discuss the alone-ness and the non-alone-ness of thinking. At a first glance, in this fragment, we seem to confront just another version of Bakhtin's dialogue. However, here dialogue appears as something ominous. It is an interaction of the thinking self with itself that is full of conflict, falsehood, and self-deception. The gaze of the Other is the possession of me. The truth in the understanding by the thinking self of the self is in principle unattainable. Such a dark vision is far removed from the present-day naive interpretations of dialogue as pacification of conflict as this has been promoted by the science of dialogics. In my presentation, I will analyze this short fragment and invite the audience to reflect on the dark side of dialogue, on the negativity of reflection, and on the challenges of thinking "alone" that means "not alone" and "never alone", under the frightening gaze of the Other looking at me from my reflection in the mirror.

 

3.      “Improvisation as an epistemological act” – Group lecture by Lisa Ullén and Nina de Heney.

4.      Open discussion based on the distributed text and on what has been said by lecturers and others during the day. This last session will be recorded and later published as a podcast.

Irina Sandomirskaja is professor, Cultural Studies, Södertörn University. PhD in Linguistics from Institute of Linguistics, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, with dissertation Metaphoric Emotive Verbs with the Semantics of Human Conduct.

       More info at:  http://webappo.web.sh.se/p3/ext/content.nsf/agetopenagent&key=sh_personal_publ_en_319266

Lisa Ullén, piano, and Nina de Heney, double-bass, plays together in a duo since 2007, both are profiled, skilled and awarded musicians at the international scene of Jazz- and improvised music.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UcVgNSDiv4