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Speculation
A wide-ranging investigation of what speculation is, and what is at stake for artistic, curatorial, critical, and institutional practices in relating to their own speculative character.
Engaging with the question of speculation in ways that encompass the artistic, the economic, and the philosophical, with excursions into the literary and the scientific, this collection approaches the theme as a powerful logic of contemporary life whose key instantiations are art and finance. Both are premised on the power of contingency, temporality, and experimentation in the creation (and capitalization) of possible worlds. Artistic autonomy, and the self-legislation of the space of art, have often been seen as the freedom to speculate wildly on material and social possibilities. In this context, the artist is seen as a speculative subject and a paragon of creativity—the diametrical opposite of the bean-counter obsessed with balance sheets and value added. However, once social reality becomes speculative and opaque in its own right—risky, algorithmic, and overhauled by networked markets—what becomes of the distinction between not just art and finance but art and life?
This anthology surveys material and social inventiveness from the ground up, speculating with technologies, gender, constructs of the family, and systems of logistics and coordination. An ecology of speculation is traced—one that is as broken, specific, and enthralling as the world.
Artists Surveyed include Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Ludwiński, Cameron Rowland, Salvage Art Institute, Andy Warhol, Mi You, PiraMMMida, Sam Lewitt
Writers Include Lisa Adkins, Ramon Amaro, Brenna Bhandar, Octavia Butler, Cédric Durand, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Sophie Lewis, Dougal Dixon, Stanisław Lem, Isabelle Stengers and Phillip Pignarre, Steven Shaviro, Can Xue, Daniel Spaulding
Engaging with the question of speculation in ways that encompass the artistic, the economic, and the philosophical, with excursions into the literary and the scientific, this collection approaches the theme as a powerful logic of contemporary life whose key instantiations are art and finance. Both are premised on the power of contingency, temporality, and experimentation in the creation (and capitalization) of possible worlds. Artistic autonomy, and the self-legislation of the space of art, have often been seen as the freedom to speculate wildly on material and social possibilities. In this context, the artist is seen as a speculative subject and a paragon of creativity—the diametrical opposite of the bean-counter obsessed with balance sheets and value added. However, once social reality becomes speculative and opaque in its own right—risky, algorithmic, and overhauled by networked markets—what becomes of the distinction between not just art and finance but art and life?
This anthology surveys material and social inventiveness from the ground up, speculating with technologies, gender, constructs of the family, and systems of logistics and coordination. An ecology of speculation is traced—one that is as broken, specific, and enthralling as the world.
Artists Surveyed include Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Ludwiński, Cameron Rowland, Salvage Art Institute, Andy Warhol, Mi You, PiraMMMida, Sam Lewitt
Writers Include Lisa Adkins, Ramon Amaro, Brenna Bhandar, Octavia Butler, Cédric Durand, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Sophie Lewis, Dougal Dixon, Stanisław Lem, Isabelle Stengers and Phillip Pignarre, Steven Shaviro, Can Xue, Daniel Spaulding
242 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 6, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 7, 2023
Not for me.
January 4, 2024
An at times intriguing analysis of speculation - in its artistic and financial forms - this edited collection at times loses itself in an impenetrable discourse. Yes, it provokes thinking around futures—and in particular post-capitalist futures— but some contributions (including, dare I say, Peter Osborne’s) are far too self-referential of the world of art.
There are useful ideas in here which would have been better served with their full (unedited) inclusion and whilst the editor has attempted to weave a form of critical debate or framing between the texts, I would have preferred to see some interrogative and contextual framing of some of the contributions so that the reader might be able to understand some of the verbose and dense contributions. It’s all very well including Hegel as a theoretical anchor-point, but honestly his writing in 1803 really does require contemporary translation and contextualisation.
There are useful ideas in here which would have been better served with their full (unedited) inclusion and whilst the editor has attempted to weave a form of critical debate or framing between the texts, I would have preferred to see some interrogative and contextual framing of some of the contributions so that the reader might be able to understand some of the verbose and dense contributions. It’s all very well including Hegel as a theoretical anchor-point, but honestly his writing in 1803 really does require contemporary translation and contextualisation.
November 12, 2024
pretty good analysis of speculation and drawing from different texts. good diversity of writings. the language was pretty advanced tho
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews