SPRING MEETING - 29 March – 7 April, 2014 - Reza Negarestani | Stephen Zepke | Isabelle Stengers

Three of our times' most exciting thinkers visit PAF this Spring Meeting to engage in three related yet not connected adventures. As much as these thinkers have coinciding interests they are at the same time intensely different in approach, modes of argument and notions of political theory, philosophy and aesthetics.

29 – 31 March Reza Negarestani

The nine days of seminar introduce the first longer seminar with the Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani, known for his often dark, speculative approach. Reza will be present in person for this thorough introduction to his current work.

1 – 3 April Stephen Zepke

Stephen Zepke has written a number of books on Deleuze and Guattari’s engagement and relations to aesthetics. Zepke working and living in Vienna has in- depth researched relations between Deleuze and Lyotard’s interest in the sublime in relation to contemporary theories on beauty.

4 – 6 April Isabelle Stengers

The Spring Meeting will end with three days with the Belgian philosopher Isabel Stengers, one of our times most influential minds that through her work has widened the scope of philosophy into a wilder mode of conceptual thought. Stengers will this time focus on Whitehead and her 2011 book 'Thinking with Whitehead'.

Reza Negarestani has since the publication of his debut “Cyclonopedia” caused turbulence in the field of philosophy and critical theory. His philosophical writing can be said to be a tornado of thought where fiction overlaps fiction, becomes philosophy falling through an underlying archeology of politics or perhaps rather a politics of archeology. Reza Negarestani does not just reinvent philosophy but the practice of philosophizing itself as a comprehensive search for alternative modes of thinking and synthesis of knowledge.

Stephan Zepke is an independent thinker active in Vienna. He has published a number of books on Deleuze and Guattari’s aesthetics. Among his publications are “Art as Abstract Machine” from 2011 that open all together new doors to Deleuze understanding of the sublime in relation to ontology. Upcoming is “Towards An Aesthetics of the Future”, 2015.

Isabelle Stengers teaches philosophy at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Her interests centre around both the constructive adventure of modern sciences and the problems born from the association of this adventure with power and claims to rational authority. She is working on the crucial challenge, both political and cultural, of an active ecology embedding our many diverging scientific practices in a democratic and demanding environment - against both the ideal of their sovereign autonomy and their submission to social demands.

Practicalities

The seminar format engages each lecturer three days in a row, five hour per day with the intention to approach knowledge in ways specific to PAF, neither academic or artistic, didactic or democratic but as a shared journey into specific yet porous territories to explore modes of understanding and thinking together.
Apart from the seminar it is up to the participants to together engage and cross- fertilize activities, interests, process and production from yoga practices to reading groups, from individual rehearsals to communal dance practices and showings, and to produce the Spring Meeting we want. PAF is open to the widest range of proposals and it is up to us to produce a curriculum, a daily routine and a politics of life.

During Spring Meeting our chefs will provide meals three times per day, habitually, as you all know, as much as they produce magic it’s all an adventure [as usually the kitchen is open for informal collaborations, individual initiatives and help].

During Spring Meeting participation in meals are binding. The total costs per participant is 34€ per day (17€ per bed/room and 17€ for three meals including wine and coffee). PAF membership (12€) is obligatory due to insurance reasons and is valid for one year.

So the total fee for the Spring Meeting is 318€.

Note, that thereis a limited number of participants so reserve as soon as possible. Reservations: contactpaf@gmail.com

PAF is only able to accept reservations for the entire 9 days.
In case the meeting very well attended guests will share room. If you travel with a potential roommate, please let us know.

Please don’t hesitate to ask further questions contactpaf@gmail.com !