How might ‘the digital’ be conceived of in an ‘expanded field’ of art practice, where ontology is flattened such that it is not defined by a particular media? This text, together with an installation of art work at the Exhibition Research Lab, Liverpool John Moores University (13-24 March), constitutes the thesis submission as a whole, such that in the practice of ‘reading’ the thesis, each element remains differentiated from the other and makes no attempt to ‘represent’ the other. In negating representation, such practices present a ‘radical’ rethinking of the digital as a differentiated in-itself, one that is not defined solely by entrenched computational narratives derived from set theory. Rather, following Nelson Goodman’s nominalistic rejection of class constructs, ‘the digital’ is thus understood in onto-epistemic terms as being syntactically and semantically differentiated (Languages of Art 161). In the context of New Zealand Post-object Art practices of the late 1960s, as read through Jack Burnham’s systems thinking, such a digitally differentiated ontology is conceived of in terms of the how of practice, rather than what of objects (“Systems Aesthetics”). After Heidegger, such a practice is seen as an event of becoming realised by the method of formal indication, such that what is concealed is brought forth as a thing-in-itself (The Event; Phenomenological Interpretations 26). As articulated through the researcher’s own sculptural practice – itself indebted to Post-object Art – indication is developed as an intersubjective method applicable to both artists and audience. However, the constraints imposed on the thing-in-itself by the Husserlian phenomenological tradition are also taken as imposing correlational limitations on the ‘digital’, such that it is inherently an in-itself for-us and thus not differentiated in-itself. To resolve such Kantian dialectics, the thesis draws on metaphysical arguments put forward by contemporary speculative ontologies – in particular the work of Quentin Meillassoux and Tristan Garcia (After Finitude; Form and Object). Where these contemporary continental philosophies provide a means of releasing events from the contingency of human ‘reason’, the thesis argues for a practice of ‘un-reason’ in which indication is recognized as being contingent on speculation. Practice, it is argued, was never reason’s alone to determine. Instead, through the ‘radical’ method of speculative indication, practice is asserted as the event through which the differentiated digital is revealed as a thing-in-itself of itself and not for us.

Between Text and Context: The Theory of the Literary Field and Cultural Materialism as Models of Mediation Josef Šebek, Mgr. Abstract In his dissertation Between Text and Context: The Theory of the Literary Field and Cultural Materialism as Models of Mediation the author deals with the problem of mediation between literary text and its social context. He focuses on two important contemporary context- oriented approaches to literature: the theory of literary field, developed by Pierre Bourdieu, and cultural materialism, first formulated by Raymond Williams and further elaborated by Alan Sinfield and Jonathan Dollimore. He interprets these two theories as basic, mutually complementary models of mediation: the theory of literary field presupposes the existence of a (semi-)autonomous literary micro-world, whereas cultural materialism stresses the full integration of the literary text into the social context, the "social material process" (Williams). After an introduction outlining the problem, the author concentrates on Bourdieu's theory of the literary field, his "new science of works," and on contemporary post-Bourdieusian approaches (those of Alain Viala, Anna Boschetti, Jacques Dubois, Gisèle Sapiro, Pascale Casanova, Bernard Lahire, Jérôme Meizoz, Geoffroy de Lagasnerie) which employ, develop, and modify...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:12:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Retido.pdf: 19733 bytes, checksum: 6aad255badc436a06364517de2344ab6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-13 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The present PhD dissertation discusses the relationship between the Critical Theory of Society and empirical social research as elaborated in the work of the Institute of Social Research of Frankfurt, particularly after 1931, during the period in which it was under the direction of Max Horkheimer. Thus, it investigates to what extent such a nexus considered part of this theory s immanent coherence can be found in the research carried out in the United States and published as The Authoritarian Personality. The first chapter is dedicated to the reconstruction of Horkheimer s notion of interdisciplinary materialism. The discussion is based on his inaugural lecture as the Institute director, and on his essays published during the 1930s. In the second chapter, the main empirical social research projects carried out by the Institute members, in Germany and in the United States, are presented. The third chapter is dedicated to Theodor W. Adorno, his critique of Sociology and his views about the accomplishment of empirical research in the scope of Critical Theory. The last chapter is dedicated to an analysis of The Authoritarian Personality, seeking connections between the theory and procedures and instruments, and also between theoretical elaborations on their results. / A presente tese discute a relação entre a Teoria Crítica da Sociedade e a pesquisa social empírica no Instituto de Pesquisas Sociais de Frankfurt, a partir de sua direção por Max Horkheimer, e investiga em que medida esse nexo considerado interno à teoria pode ser encontrado na pesquisa realizada nos Estados Unidos e publicada sob o título de The Authoritarian Personality. O primeiro capítulo é dedicado à reconstrução de ideia de materialismo interdisciplinar, proposto por Horkheimer, a partir de seu discurso inaugural como diretor do Instituto e de seus textos teóricos produzidos na década de 1930. No segundo capítulo, são apresentadas as principais pesquisas sociais empíricas realizadas pelos intelectuais do Instituto tanto na Alemanha, quanto no exílio americano. O terceiro capítulo é dedicado às críticas e reelaborações de Theodor W. Adorno a respeito de sua visão sobre a realização de pesquisas empíricas no âmbito da Teoria Crítica. O último capítulo é destinado às análises de The Authoritarian Personality, em busca de suas conexões com a teoria a partir tanto de seus procedimentos e instrumentos, quanto de suas elaborações teóricas a respeito de seus resultados.

La thèse présente un historique complet sur la responsabilité pénale des personnes morales depuis les récits de la Genèse jusqu’aux sentences de la Cour Suprême espagnole prononcées en 2016. Cette histoire n’est pas simplement une description des différents auteurs ou des différents moments historiques, mais c’est plutôt une reconstruction critique construite principalement pour identifier et pour démêler la doctrine qui trouve dans l’expression latine societas delinquere non potest l’argument le plus important pour nier la possibilité d’attribuer la responsabilité pénale aux groupements. Une fois établis les concepts et les idées selon le système philosophique appelé « matérialisme philosophique », dont l’auteur est l’espagnol Gustavo Bueno, une étude de la sentence latine, d’origine inconnue jusqu'à présent, est présentée ; c’est donc pour la première fois que nous identifions et expliquons cette origine: elle a été inventée par Franz von Liszt en 1881. Après cela une reconstruction complète de l’histoire de l’idée est réalisée et l’on découvre deux nouveautés fondamentales : que la Révolution française n’a jamais prétendu refuser la responsabilité pénale des groupements et que la Cour Suprême espagnole avait prononcé des sentences condamnatoires aux groupements au XIXe siècle. Sur la base de ces faits, on situe à la fin de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale le moment dans lequel la sentence latine prend le sens d’impossibilité ontologique des groupements quant à commettre un crime et qui se base sur une idée politique et non juridique : la décision des puissances victorieuses du fait que l’Allemagne n’avait pas été coupable, mais seulement certains hiérarques et groupements Nazis. / This thesis provides a comprehensive history of corporate criminal liability, from the Book of Genesis up to the rulings handed down by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2016. However, this history is not limited to a mere descriptive survey of authors or historical periods: instead, it constitutes a powerful critique of a doctrinal tradition which purports to find in the Latin maxim societas delinquere non potest the best argument to deny that corporations can be held criminally liable. Once that the concepts and ideas which lie at the basis of this thesis are established following the philosophical system known as “philosophical materialism”, founded by Spanish philosopher Gustavo Bueno, I present an inquiry on the heretofore unknown origins of the Latin maxim which I have been able to trace back to 1881, when its originator, Franz von Liszt coined it. After it I undertake a comprehensive reconstruction of the history of this idea, from which two major findings emerge: firstly, that the French revolutionaries never intended to reject corporate criminal responsibility and secondly, that the Spanish Supreme Court issued convictions against societies in the 19th century. On the basis of these facts, the end of World War II emerges as the key turning point in History when the Latin maxim acquired the status of a philosophical principle denying the ontological possibility of a society to be criminally responsible. A principle whose roots are not to be found in legal doctrine but in a political idea: the decision by the Allied powers that it was not Germany that was to be held responsible for war crimes, but rather only those Nazi Party organizations and hierarchy directly involved. / La tesis presenta un estudio histórico completo sobre la responsabilidad penal de las personas jurídicas, desde el libro del Génesis hasta las sentencias del Tribunal Supremo de 2016. Este estudio no se plantea únicamente como una mera descripción de diferentes autores o momentos históricos, sino como una reconstrucción crítica construida principalmente para identificar y destruir la doctrina que encuentra en la expresión latina societas delinquere non potest el argumento más importante para negar la responsabilidad penal corporativa. Una vez establecidos los conceptos y las ideas según el sistema filosófico llamado "materialismo filosófico", cuyo autor es el filósofo español Gustavo Bueno, se presenta un estudio de la frase latina, de origen desconocido hasta ahora. Por primera vez se identifica y se explica este origen: fue inventada por Franz von Liszt en 1881. Tras ello se presenta una reconstrucción completa de la historia de la idea en la que se descubren diversas novedades historiográficas, entre las que destacan el hecho de que la Revolución Francesa nunca pretendiera rechazar la responsabilidad penal corporativa y que el Tribunal Supremo español hubiera pronunciado sentencias condenatorias a empresas en el siglo XIX. Sobre la base de estos hechos, situamos al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial el momento en el que la sentencia latina toma el sentido de imposibilidad ontológica de las corporaciones de cometer delitos y que según entendemos se basa en una idea política y no jurídica: la decisión de las potencias vencedoras de que Alemania no había sido culpable, sino solamente algunos jerarcas y corporaciones nazis.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:33:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Ferreira Lion.pdf: 1561226 bytes, checksum: eae75063f0ebc6e2b10efb486893e860 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-06 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / This research is dedicated to the work of the philosopher, historian and German economist Alfred Sohn-Rethel and the contributions that his theory has to offer for the analyses of law. The analysis of the commodity form made by Marx is the starting point for criticism of the theory of knowledge by the author which shows how humans can have a pure knowledge, separated from the empirical level, which Kant refers to when he says of the existence of a priori categories of knowledge. The emergence of conceptual thinking, of formal logic, is the main discussion of his work and base from which to take elements to the analysis of that social phenomenon which we call law. / Esta pesquisa é dedicada à obra do filósofo, historiador e economista alemão Alfred Sohn-Rethel e às contribuições que sua teoria tem a oferecer para a análise do direito. A análise da forma mercadoria efetuada por Marx é o ponto de partida para a crítica da teoria do conhecimento feita pelo autor, que revela como é possível os humanos terem um conhecimento puro , desvinculado do nível empírico, ao qual se refere Kant quando afirma a existência de categorias a priori do conhecimento. O surgimento do pensamento conceitual, da lógica formal, é o debate principal de sua obra e base a partir da qual se retira elementos para a análise daquele fenômeno social ao qual chamamos de direito.

Cette thèse révèle les schémas historiques et les occultations intentionnelles du matérialisme qu’ont imposés en France les conceptions uniformes de l’écriture de l’histoire de la philosophie de Degérando, Cousin et Damiron. À côté de l’anti-matérialisme généralisé des premiers historiens de la philosophie du XIXe siècle, à l’exception toutefois de Paul-Marie Laurent, l’auteur souligne aussi la genèse de leurs innovations conceptuelles :l’apparition, en 1801-1804, via Kant et Villers, de la catégorie doctrinale, alors inédite en France, de « sensualisme ». Omissions et innovations dont les effets courent encore jusqu’à nous et dont l’oubli occasionne bien des anachronismes.<p><p>Occulted Materialism and the Genesis of « Sensualism ».<p>Histories, Written and Real, of Philosophy in France<p><p>This thesis reveals the historic schemes and the intentional occultations of materialism as imposed in France by the uniform conceptions of the writing of the history of philosophy of Degérando, Cousin and Damiron. Beside the anti-materialism generalized by the early nineteenth-century historians of philosophy, with the exception of Paul-Marie Laurent, the author also underlines the genesis of their conceptual innovations :the appearance, between 1801 and 1804, through Kant and Villers, of the doctrinal category of « sensualism », at that time unheard of in France. The effects of both omissions and innovations are still affecting us today. Forgetting them brings about a good bit of anachronisms.<p><p> / Agrégation de l'enseignement supérieur, Orientation philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Listen. If I ask you to listen, what is it that I ask of you—that you will understand, or perhaps obey? Or is it some sort of readiness that is requested? What occurs with a body in the act of listening? How do sound and voice structure audio-visual-spatial relations in concrete situations? This doctoral thesis in fine arts consists of six artworks and an essay that documents the research process, or rather, acts as a travelogue as it stages and narrates a series of journeys into a predominantly sonic ecology. One entry into this field is offered by the animal “voice” and attempts to teach animals to speak human language. The first journey concerns a specific case where humanoid sounds were found to emanate from an unlikely source—the blowhole of a dolphin. Another point of entry is offered by the acousmatic voice, a voice split from its body, and more specifically, my encounter with the disembodied voice of Steve Buscemi in a prison in Philadelphia. This listening experience triggered a fascination with, and an inquiry into, the voices that exist alongside us, the parasitic relation that audio technology makes possible, and the way an accompanying voice changes one’s perceptions and even one’s behavior. In the case of both the animal and the acousmatic, the seemingly trivial act of attending to a voice quickly opens up a complex space of embodied entanglements with the potential to challenge much of what we take for granted. At the heart of my inquiry is a series of artworks made between 2012 and 2016, which constitute a third journey: the performance Limit-Cruisers (#1 Sphere), the praxis session Limit-Cruisers (#2 Crowd), the installations Therapy in Junkspace, Fluorescent You, and “Then, ere the bark above their shoulders grew,” and the lecture performance Articulations from the Orifice (The Dry and the Wet). The relationship between what is seen and heard is being explored and renegotiated in the arts and beyond. We are increasingly addressed by prerecorded and synthetic voices in both public and private spaces. Simultaneously, our notions of human communication are challenged and complicated by recent research in animal communication. My work attempts to address the shifts and complexities embodied in these developments. The three journeys are deeply entwined with theoretical inquiries into human-animal relationships, technology, and the philosophy of sound. In the essay, I consider as well how other artistic practices are exploring this same complex space. What I put forward is a materialist and concrete approach to listening understood as a situated practice. Listening is both a form of co-habitation and an ecology. In and through listening, I claim, one could be said to perform in concert with the things heard while at the same time being changed by them. / <p>Avhandlingen är även utgiven i serien: Malmö Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University: DoctoralStudies and Research in Fine and Performing Arts, 16. ISSN: 1653-8617</p>

This dissertation investigates how a symmetrical approach to archaeology can be applied to identify the properties and effects of the non-living, abiotic materials. And to reconfigure the relationship between humans and non-human objects, bridging the divide between what has been termed ‘cultural’ and ‘natural’ and thus placed in different ontological realms. This is examined by studying the practices surrounding “boulder graves”, from the Late Bronze Age - Early Iron Age (approx. 1000 – 0 BC) in Kättsta, Ärentuna parish in Uppland, Sweden. The boulders tend to be studied from an anthropocentric point of view, in which they are seen primarily as passive objects, interpreted only for what they represent. The objective of this research, however, is to gain new insights into the agency of boulders, and how they contributed to the practices carried out adjacent to them. The dissertation is based on a case study where a thematic analysis is performed, focusing on the properties and characteristics of boulders, their affordances, the distribution of finds and their interrelations, and the effects their relations generated. The results show that the boulders themselves contributed in human-stone relations and were vital in the formation of the grave-like features they became part of. It is argued that a symmetrical, non-anthropocentric approach to these features will broaden our view on materialities in the past, affording ontological as well as ecological implications.

Cette thèse interroge le dialogue théorique et pratique entre les sens et le design. En éclairant les échanges qui s’instaurent entre les sciences contemporaines de la perception et les nouvelles approches sensorielles du design, elle laisse apparaître un paradigme inédit de la création et de la cognition. Elle montre qu’un modèle de design sensible émerge sous l’impulsion de nouveaux modèles cognitivistes de la perception, qui vient transformer les domaines de la création. Les arts plastiques investissent les sens corporels, amplifiés par les technologies ; l’architecture remet en cause la tradition visiocentrée de l’espace, et s’ouvre une conception spatiale de type atmosphérique. À la frontière de ces mouvements, surgit un paradigme du design focalisé sur la relation tangible et multisensorielle entre l’homme et le monde de l’artificiel. Grâce à la réhabilitation des sens pragmatiques, les théories antidualistes de la perception, en conjonction avec les sciences cognitives et les technologies numériques, inspirent la conception d’artefacts orientés vers l’engagement corporel et les relations matérielles. L’obsolescence du modèle des cinq sens permet de revisiter scientifiquement des phénomènes comme les synesthésies, la plasticité perceptive et les correspondances sensorielles. Le dépassement de l’idée de sens entendus comme des organes récepteurs, conduit à considérer les aspects immatériels de la perception, tels que l’expressivité et l’intentionnalité attribuées aux choses. Dans ce contexte, cette thèse explore la manière dont la sensorialité redevient un sujet de recherche et de création. Entre philosophie, psychologie expérimentale et histoire de l’art et du design, elle interroge le modèle rationaliste du design et montre que l’émergence de ce nouveau paradigme est motivée par l’exigence de s’affranchir du modèle industriel guidé par la relation visuelle et fonctionnelle de la forme et des usages. Suivant un cheminement non nécessairement linéaire, la recherche se concentre sur les moments clés et les figures majeures du dialogue entre design moderne et théories des sens, et montre que ce dernier, engagé depuis la Renaissance, n’a cessé d’alimenter les relations entre perception et arts du disegno. / This thesis examines the theoretical and practical dialogue between design and the senses. Shedding light on the exchanges taking place between the contemporary sciences of perception and the new sensorial approaches of design, it reveals a new paradigm of creation and cognition. The thesis puts forward the emergence of a sensitive design model promoted by new cognitivist models of perception, transforming the domains of creation. Magnified by technology, contemporary arts are permeating the bodily senses; while architecture challenges the visually centered tradition of space, and an atmospheric conception of space opens up.Emerging at the marches of these movements is a paradigm of design focused on the tangible, multi-sensorial relationship between the human world and the artificial world. Anti-dualist theories of senses, coupled with cognitive sciences and digital technologies, conceive artifacts that are inclined towards material relationship and involvement of the body, made possible by the rehabilitation of pragmatic senses. Obsolescence of the five senses model allows the scientific rediscovery of several phenomena such as synesthesia, perceptive plasticity and sensorial interactions. Surpassing the notion of senses as mere receptive functions, leads us to examine the immaterial aspects of perception, such as expressiveness and intentionality attributed to things.In this context, this thesis explores how sensoriality becomes once again a subject for research and creation. Overlapping philosophy, experimental psychology, and the history of art and design, it questions the rationalist model of design; it also shows how the need for freedom from the industrial model, as lead by the visual and functional relationship between form and usage, brings about the emergence of a new paradigm.Following a not essentially linear path, the research focuses on key moments, along with the major features of a dialogue between modern design and theories of the senses ; this dialogue, initiated since the Renaissance, never stopped nourishing the relationships between perception and arts of the disegno.