Catastrophe Practice:
Thinking the Unthinkable
February 2, 2011 @ 7pm
Tishman Auditorium, The New School
66 West 12th Street, New York, NY
n+1 (https://www.nplusonemag.com/) in partnership with France’s renowned cultural institute, La Villa Gillet (http://www.villagillet.net/), presents “Catastrophe Practice.”
From the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 up through the atomic age and our “anthropocene” era, we live with “the imagination of catastrophe.” Not only have disasters become all too probable, but the idea of disaster haunts how we think about our lives on every level, from global planning to individual relationships. How then may we learn to live and think with and within the expectation of catastrophe? Moderated by n+1 editors Marco Roth and Mark Greif this symposium, “Catastrophe Practice,” begins with the premise that catastrophe is the norm or rule of modern life, the nightmare inversion to the Enlightenment account of human progress.
Participants in this wide ranging and interdisciplinary discussion of how human beings respond to catastrophe will include:
Jean-Pierre Dupuy
a philosopher, a risk theorist and a Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the École Polytechnique, Paris. Dupuy is currently a researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University, courtesy of the Department of Political Science.
Jonathan Lear
a philosopher, a psychoanalyst, and the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor at the legendary Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, where he is also a professor in the Department of Philosophy.
Michel Lussault
a French urbanist and a geographer. He is currently the president of Université de Lyons.
Josh Neufeld
a graphic artist and novelist famous for his portrayal of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
For more information, please email editors [at] nplusonemag.com.