{"title":"Interview with Brian Massumi: From the Ecology of Powers to an Aesthetics of the Earth","authors":"Emre Sünter","doi":"10.1177/02632764221146413","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In this interview, Brian Massumi discusses the possibility of a collective practice of experimentation beyond the infernal alternatives between the state authoritarianism and a narrow and exclusionary notion of freedom based on the individual, reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic. This requires diagnosing the mix of forces at play, in other words, examining the interlinkages of various modes of power. Analysis of the ecology of powers then invokes a positive project that is inventing an aesthetics of the earth. An aesthetics of the earth is a call for a more-than-human relational ethics, which takes place in intricate co-composition with the earth and its emergent strata of all kinds: viral, bacterial, vegetal, animal, human, technological. Thus, from the ecology of powers to an aesthetics of the earth, Massumi proposes a politics of potential that is diagnostic rather than prescriptive yet encourages experimentation towards a postcapitalist future at this critical juncture of our epoch.","PeriodicalId":48276,"journal":{"name":"Theory Culture & Society","volume":"18 1","pages":"269 - 286"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Theory Culture & Society","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764221146413","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CULTURAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this interview, Brian Massumi discusses the possibility of a collective practice of experimentation beyond the infernal alternatives between the state authoritarianism and a narrow and exclusionary notion of freedom based on the individual, reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic. This requires diagnosing the mix of forces at play, in other words, examining the interlinkages of various modes of power. Analysis of the ecology of powers then invokes a positive project that is inventing an aesthetics of the earth. An aesthetics of the earth is a call for a more-than-human relational ethics, which takes place in intricate co-composition with the earth and its emergent strata of all kinds: viral, bacterial, vegetal, animal, human, technological. Thus, from the ecology of powers to an aesthetics of the earth, Massumi proposes a politics of potential that is diagnostic rather than prescriptive yet encourages experimentation towards a postcapitalist future at this critical juncture of our epoch.
期刊介绍:
Theory, Culture & Society is a highly ranked, high impact factor, rigorously peer reviewed journal that publishes original research and review articles in the social and cultural sciences. Launched in 1982 to cater for the resurgence of interest in culture within contemporary social science, Theory, Culture & Society provides a forum for articles which theorize the relationship between culture and society. Theory, Culture & Society is at the cutting edge of recent developments in social and cultural theory. The journal has helped to break down some of the disciplinary barriers between the humanities and the social sciences by opening up a wide range of new questions in cultural theory.