Speculation

ISBN 10: 0262545330 / ISBN 13: 9780262545334

Published by MIT Press June 2023, 2023

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 LudwiÅ ski, Cameron Rowland, Salvage Art Institute, Andy Warhol, Mi You, PiraMMMida, Sam Lewitt Writers Include Lisa Adkins, Ramon Amaro, Brenna Bhandar, Octavia Butler, CÃ dric Durand, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Sophie Lewis, Dougal Dixon, Stanislaw Lem, Isabelle Stengers and Phillip Pignarre, Steven Shaviro, Can Xue, Daniel Spaulding 'This volume engages in a wide-ranging investigation of what speculation can mean and how, and what is at stake for artistic, curatorial critical and institutional practices in relating to their own speculative character'-- Book has remainder mark on text edge. Very nice clean, tight copy free of any marks. Seller Inventory # 325640

Synopsis:

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, Stanislaw Lem, Isabelle Stengers and Phillip Pignarre, Steven Shaviro, Can Xue, Daniel Spaulding

About the Author: Marina Vishmidt is a writer, editor, and lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she convenes the Masters in Culture Industry. She is the author of Speculation as a Mode of Production and, with Kerstin Stakemeier, coauthor of Reproducing Autonomy: Work, Money, Crisis and Contemporary Art.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Speculation
Publisher: MIT Press June 2023
Publication Date: 2023
Binding: Trade Paperback
Condition: Used - Very Good