A presentation that I gave at Utrecht University on the 6th of November 2009 for Journée Szendy (a small conference dedicated to the works of musicologist/philosopher Peter Szendy) organized by Sander van Maas.
philosophy or your life
When one of his students dared to ask Martin Heidegger if he could tell him something about the life of Aristotle, Heidegger mockingly answered: ”Aristotle was born, he worked, he died.” This denial to acknowledge the relevance of biography for philosophy is ironic to say the least. There are hardly any philosophers whose works were as noticeably influenced by personal events as his own. Moreover, this rejection of biography is inconsistent with other aspects of his philosophy.
a rather fortunate accident
Ironically, the results of mistakes often end up to be far more interesting than those of hard work. Marvin Gaye’s 1970 hit “What’s Going On” serves as one of those miraculous examples of serendipity. During the recording sessions a rather fortunate accident occurred. The singer had recorded two alternate takes of the lead-vocals that were one octave apart. When the artist asked the sound engineer on duty, Ken Sands, to play these two tracks for him, the technician unwittingly played them simultaneously in mono. The unintended result was a duet between the singer and himself
a typology of iterations
The critique of linguistic presence that Jacques Derrida develops in “Signature Event Context” (1971) has become a common place in contemporary philosophy and literary theory. Often forgotten, however – and not in the last place by the French philosopher himself – is the fact that this essay does not just proclaim the ‘death of metaphysics’ but also suggests a path for future philosophical research. “Signature Event Context” initiates a shift from signs and meaning themselves to the acts, procedures, and operations that invoke them.
about medial operations
How do media – old and new – shape and transform knowledge? The research-in-progress website, Medial Operations, focuses on the complex transitions between noise, non-sense, information, and knowledge.
about ulysses lied
This seminar focuses on Kittler’s latest and perhaps most ambitious project, Musik und Mathematik. This work aims to present a cultural history of the Western world in four volumes, starting in ancient Greece, then passing through Rome, the middle ages and up to the present computerized age. In the Fall of 2009, alternating between locations at Utrecht University and the University of Amsterdam, organizers Sander van Maas en Jan Hein Hoogstad invite scholars from all disciplinary backgrounds to join in the reading.
down the drain
A presentation that I gave at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis on the 29th of April 2009 for the How To Do Cultural Analysis and Why (Not) lecture series organized by Murat Aydemir.
new adventures in low-fidelity
This essay makes a case for media-epistemic pluralism, by staging an encounter between Friedrich Kittler’s Gramophone, Film, Typewriter and Ralph Ellison’s autobiographical story ‘Living with Music’. It argues that a medium does not function autonomously, but always forms a complex constellation with other media. This constellation takes shapes through the interventions of the conceptual persona of the engineer.
get on the good foot
This is the first draft of my contribution to the volume Pluralizing Rhythm that I am currently editing with Birgitte Stougaard. All comments and suggestions are welcome! In this text I analyse James Brown’s concept of ‘The One’ (or downbeat) into popular music as a revolution. “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” — the song in which ‘The One’ was introduced — is not a revolution because it made any major alterations. On the contrary, it simply performed a minuscule shift. A change that cannot be seen, touched, smelled, or heard but is real nonetheless.