Judith Butler analyzes Primo Levi's confrontation with his experience in the death camps, especially in his books "Survival at Auschwitz" and "The Drowned and the Saved". Butler then applies these thoughts to current debates on antisemitism and the question of the legitimacy of the Jewish State of Israel, the especially the rhetorical mine field one must cross in attempting a critical appraisal of the situation.
Slavoj Zizek starts off asserting the persistance of subjectivity in Freudian analysis, that transparency is impossible. Butler takes up Zizeks point about the inscription of the social field in her experience, and, further, Derrida's reflection on how psychoanalysis approaches suffering and mourning.
Lecture with Avital Ronell and Judith Butler focusing on contemporaneity of philosophy, Jacques Derrida, Georges Bataille, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, theory and trauma. Free public open lecture for the students of the European Graduate School EGS, Media and Communication Studies department program, Saas-Fee, Switzerland, Europe, 2006
Length: 0:09:16.
Judith Butler lecturing on the notion of trauma, how it threatens to reenact the past as the present by relieving past victims of responsibility for any wrong they maybe doing (due to trauma) in the present. In light of these thoughts, she reflects on the then-current situation in the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Alain Badiou on the relation of Democracy, Politics, Theory and Philosophy. Public open video lecture for the faculty and students of the European Graduate School, Media Studies Department Program, EGS, Saas-Fee, Switzerland, Europe, 2006.
Length: 0:09:30.
Is democracy a condition for philosophy? This is one of the main pillars of Alain Badiou's philosophy. This clip features the last minutes of his talk at public open lecture for the students of the European Graduate School EGS, Media and Communication Studies department program, Saas-Fee, Switzerland, Europe, 2006
Peter Greenaway talks about being a director and filmmaker in Holland and gives a preview of his new movie based on Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's painting "Night Watch" which is an elaborate production whereby his film is projected on top of the Flemish masterpiece.
Stone describes herself as a heretician, an official handmaiden of the Anti-Christ as she does her own riff on the Vagina Monologues in a voyage through societal, scientific and theoretical concepts about transgender. Stone later gives a sneak preview of her upcoming theater show.
Miller presents an audio-visual lecture oriented around his remix of Griffith's Birth of a Nation, as he searches for a form of plasticity and density in cinema akin to that of the dj with recorded music. Miller begins with some notions from Bourriaud's "postproduction - Culture as Screenplay" : The artist as shareware.
John Perry Barlow speaking about the Independence Declaration of Cyberspace, founding the Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF with John Gilmore and Mitch Kapor. John Perry Barlow discussing surveillance and censorship, and talking about hackers, hacking, privacy, Public open lecture with students of the European Graduate School EGS, Media and Communication Studies department program, Saas-Fee, Switzerland, Europe, 2006.
Woods describes architecture as an instrument of measurement which renders the world readable through the spaces which are built. In this lecture he revisits several projects from the concrete to the purely theoretical as he gives insight to his creative process and his vision.
Sterling reflects on how ubiquitous computing promises a possible soltution to one of the most pressing problems facing the world today : sustainability. He talk then explores the prospects for RFID technology, and SPIME's, objects that can be tracked through space and time.
Zizek refers to Epicurus "Gods exist but they are in the interstices of the world" in attempting to describe the institutional novelty of EGS. He goes into detail about the various elements of the curriculum and the class structure which he finds innovative and redeeming.
Length: 0:09:00.
Zizek is waiting for Mel Gibson's phone call after Zizek criticized his quid pro quo deal to absolve himself of his his anti-semitic remarks Zizek warns of the rise of religious fundamentalisms of all hues in the Middle East.
Length: 0:08:59.
Miller discusses some of the arguments in in his book "Rhythm Science" searching for multicultural and multiple perspectives on contemporary art and exploring the conflict of underground vs overground aesthetics in the the politics of culture.
Length: 0:09:37.
What kind of order can be enterprised on the ground of the fragmented monoliths of the Superpower blocks which were thenable to come into conflict? An excerpt of a speculative lecture on the potential roles in history of r architecture, concentrating on Woods' experiences in Yugoslavia in the early 90s.
Ronells commentary on Kafka's Letter to the Father explores the notion of a Kafka that we could know through his writings and posits that Kafka, for us may only begin, where the person who bore the name in life, ends.
Length: 0:09:38.
Peter Greenaway presents includes fragments of his work "The Night Watch" which is projected on the painting by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, and whether painting can ever be the same again, Greenaway describes further projects along these lines and the museums which are interested.
Length: 0:02:24.
This is a short clip of a discussion session in which Ulfers attempts to illustrate what constitutes classicism according to Friedrich Hölderlin and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.
Length: 0:03:55.
Poetry reading and discussion about poetry, lyrics and language with French poet Pierre Alferi. European Graduate School, EGS Media and Communications Program Studies Department, Saas-Fee, Switzerland, Europe 2006
Length: 0:09:37.
Manuel De Landa explores the relevance of Eastern mysticism and philosophy in understanding subjectivity, difference and the process of thought.
A conversation between philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy and filmmaker Claire Denis after screening Sympathy For The Devil, a film by Jean-Luc Godard based on the song from the Rolling Stones. European Graduate School EGS, Media and Communication Studies department program, Saas-Fee, Switzerland
Length: 0:09:37.
Rickels explores the Lobo-Cabernite affair, where a psychiatrist, Dr. Amilcar Lobo participated in the torture of political prisoners in Brazil.
Length: 0:09:37.
Jan Zwicky speaking about the possibility of poetry for the expression of philosophical thoughts, or better, the value of an analogy be it a mathematical expression, a geometrical disposition or a poem. Among those in the auditorium was Alain Badiou who expressed himself being highly enlightened by Jan Zwicky's lecture.
Length: 0:01:52.
The Quay Brothers talk about their work, film and animation process; describing their reliance on computer graphics and their relationship to objects they can touch and feel. Quay Brothers,Open video lecture for students and faculty of European Graduate School EGS, Media and Communication Studies Program, Saas-Fee, Switzerland, Europe. Stephen and Timothy Quay (born 17 June 1947 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States), are American identical twin brothers better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators.,Careers,They reside and work in England where they moved in the late 1960s (after studying illustration in Philadelphia) to study at the Royal College of Art[1] There, they made their first short films, which no longer exist after the only print was irreparably damaged. They spent some time in the Netherlands in the 1970s and then returned to England where they teamed up with another Royal College student, Keith Griffiths, who produced all of their films. The trio formed Koninck Studios in 1980, which is currently based in Southwark, south London.,,The Quays' works (1979-present) show a wide range of often esoteric influences, starting with the Polish animators Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica and continuing with the writers Franz Kafka, Bruno Schulz, Robert Walser and Michel de Ghelderode, puppeteers Wladyslaw Starewicz and Richard Teschner and composers Leoš Janá?ek, Zden?k Liška and Leszek Jankowski, the ...