Proteus and the Radical Imaginary

by Kristupas Sabolius

“Proteus and the Radical Imaginary is an original and timely re-evaluation of the concept of the imagination in relation to aesthetics and contemporary art. Starting with the humorous story of Nasreddin’s eighteenth camel, an odd surplus that is necessary in order for reality to work (in this case, solving the riddle of a father’s mathematically perplexing testament), Sabolius goes on to discuss the metaphysical, aesthetic, political, phenomenological, and technological dimension of the imagination; providing both a philosophical history of the notion as well as making a unique intervention in contemporary debates. (...)

Sabolius’ theoretical discussions are enlivened by analyses of a surprising mix of films, artworks, popular culture, and theatre, including: exhibitions by Raimundas Malašauskas (Photo Finish in Vilnius, and the Lithuania/Cyprus “oO/Oo” Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale), the underwear-stealing gnomes of South Park, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, Victor Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive, and the avant-garde performances of Romeo Castellucci.”

Aaron Schuster

180 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2016

About the author

Kristupas Sabolius is a writer, an associate professor of philosophy at Vilnius University (Lithuania) an ex-Fulbright fellow at Stony Brook (State University of New York).

He started writing already in High school, publishing the first novel "Bad Book" in his twenties. Sabolius also collaborated with Lithuanian theatre directors and wrote a few plays, contemporaneously conducting a philosophical research on the subject of imagination.

Sabolius obtained his doctorate from Vilnius University in 2008. His thesis was entitled “The Concept of Imagination in Phenomenological Philosophy”. In his thinking, Sabolius considers imagination as the point of intersections between philosophy, psychoanalysis, arts, cinema, theatre or even neuroscience.

In 2012 he published ‘Furious Sleep. Imagination and Phenomenology’, a study which signalizes the contradictory function of imagination, appearing in all the major theories of Western thought, followed by ‘The Imaginary’ (2013), a book on imagination, technology, virtuality, cinema and art.

He teaches courses on contemporary philosophy of art and theories of imagination, co-curated a few shows (at CAC, Vilnius, and Arte Boccanera Contemporanea, Trento, Italy) as well as co-wrote the script for ‘The Gambler’ (2013), a film presented in numerous film festivals worldwide.