For a Pragmatics of the Useless

Thought in the Act

by Erin Manning

What has a use in the future, unforeseeably, is radically useless now. What has an effect now is not necessarily useful if it falls through the gaps. In For a Pragmatics of the Useless Erin Manning examines what falls outside the purview of already-known functions and established standards of value, not for want of potential but for carrying an excess of it. The figures are various: the infrathin, the artful, proprioceptive tactility, neurodiversity, black life. It is around the latter two that a central refrain echoes: "All black life is neurodiverse life." This is not an equation, but an "approximation of proximity." Manning shows how neurotypicality and whiteness combine to form a normative baseline for existence. Blackness and neurodiversity "schizz" around the baseline, uselessly, pragmatically, figuring a more-than of life living. Manning, in dialogue with Félix Guattari and drawing on the black radical tradition's accounts of black life and the aesthetics of black sociality, proposes a "schizoanalysis" of the more-than, charting a panoply of techniques for other ways of living and learning.

375 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 9, 2020

About the author

Erin Manning is a professional photographer, teacher and television personality living in Los Angeles, California. Television viewers know Erin best as the digital photography expert and host of DIY Network’s Telly-award-winning TV series The Whole Picture. She has also appeared as the techno-lifestyle guru on Enable Your Home and is the author of Portrait and Candid Photography, and Make Money With Your Digital Photography, published by Wiley. She helps people understand photography and technology by translating technical mumbo-jumbo into everyday words and by facilitating their learning with a clear, friendly teaching style.

Erin first fell in love with photography at age seven when she discovered a book entitled The Family of Man. That early encounter with images of people from all over the world shaped the direction she was to take with her photography – capturing moments with and between people.

Whether in front of the camera or behind it, photography has always been a part of Erin’s life and synthesizes her experience and education in art, technology, and entertainment. She specializes in lifestyle imagery for clients such as AT&T, Bank of America, Disney, various lifestyle magazines, healthcare organizations and individuals. Erin spent several years honing her craft by working as a commercial, portrait, and stock photographer, as well as working for Getty Images, and completing a degree in Studio Art/Graphic Design from Loyola Marymount University.

Erin serves on the Board of Directors for the Digital Imaging Marketing Association and is a member of the American Photographic Artists, Women in Photography International and the Los Angeles Digital Imaging Group, whose purpose is dedicated to advancing the art and science of digital imaging.

Reviews

[Rita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I just don’t know enough about aesthetics to really appreciate the book, but a lot of it read like fluff with no substance. I enjoyed the latter third of the book more, where the author took a more political stance.