Ep.11 – Rancière, The Distribution of the Sensible

This episode we discuss Jacques Rancière’s “The Distribution of the Sensible” from The Politics of Aesthetics. We start by parsing the first sentence of this text for several minutes, which sets the tone for a discussion of the interconnectedness between aesthetics and politics and the “self-evident” systems of the political order that determine that which is visible/invisible, audible and silent, and even thinkable and unthinkable. Listen as we debate the merits and demerits of exclusion as a concept, the bodiless embodiment of Rancière, and the potential for prefigurative politics found in this work. We’ll also give shoddy advice to our friends Fritz and Alexis about the weather and PhD application writing samples, respectively.

Thanks for Katie for suggesting we read Rancière. Requests for texts for us to discuss? Advice questions to submit? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Like our Facebook page. Get the mp3 here. RSS feed here. This episode’s music by B (intro and outro) and Jordan Cass (inter-segment).

Links!

• A blog on all things Rancière
• Rancière’s “Aesthetic Separation, Aesthetic Community: Scenes from the Aesthetic Regime of Art” in Art & Research
• Video of Rancière on the “The State of Things” and the distribution of the sensible

A distribution of the sensible at criticaltheorydesigns.wordpress.com

Ep.4 B-Sides: Laclau, continued

Join us for the continuation of our conversation on Ernesto Laclau. In relation to his “Universalism, Particularism, and the Question of Identity” and “Why Do Empty Signifiers Matter for Politics,” we discuss the relationship of empty signifiers to freedom, agency, and politics, what feminist theory, intersectionality, and new materialism might have to say to Laclau’s work, and critique his account of particularity as it relates to gender.

Requests for texts for us to discuss? Advice questions to submit? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Like our Facebook page. Get the mp3 here. RSS feed here. This episode’s music by B Aultman.

Ep.3 B-Sides: Latour, continued

The rest of our discussion of Reassembling the Social by Bruno Latour. This part of the conversation features some critiques we have of Latour, the style of the text, the ethics and politics of his project and knowledge production more generally, and the relation between Latour and other theorists.

Requests for texts for us to discuss? Advice questions to submit? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Like our Facebook page. Get the mp3 here. Listen to the first part of the Latour talk here.

Thanks to Jordan Cass for the music in the episode.