Forelesning

Symposium: Being Human Otherwise

Place: Auditorium. Limited seats, so arrive early!

Speakers: Bayo Akomolafe, Hamja Ahsan, Simon Critchley, Suzanne Gieser, Damla Kilickiran, Simone Kotva, Randi Nygård, Mmabatho Thobejane, Ahmed Umar and Mark Vernon

Convened and moderated by Lisa Rosendahl, curator and Professor at the Academy of Fine Art, the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

Programme:

Day 2: Thursday 30 April

9:30 Coffee

10:00
Lisa Rosendahl: Introduction

10:15 - 11:00
Suzanne Gieser
Toward a Non-Dual Understanding of Mind and Matter: Pauli and Jung

11:00 - 11:30
Damla Kilickiran
Some Appearances of Matter and Psyche

11:30 - 12:00
Q&A and conversation with Suzanne Gieser and Damla Kilickiran

12.00 - 13.00 Lunch

13:00
Mark Vernon
William Blake, Owen Barfield and the Evolution of Consciousness

14:00
Simone Kotva
Vegetal Mysticism

15-15:30
Q&A and conversation with Mark Vernon and Simone Kotva

15:30 - 16:00 Coffee Break

16:00 - 17:00
Simon Critchley
Mysticism and Philosophy (and Possibly Some Music)
(online)

17:00 - 17:45
Mmabatho Thobejane
In Search of Ceremony: The Altar in Ubungoma and Curatorial Practice

17:45
Q&A with Mmabatho Thobejane and closing conversation with speakers and Lisa Rosendahl

18:30 - 19:30 Refreshments

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We warmly welcome you to join in the conversation as it builds over the course of the two symposium days, collectively tracing potential human futures—between the concretely felt and the persistently unknowable, the real and the vividly imagined, the seemingly earthly and the potentially divine.

The understanding of what it means to be human is continually changing, varying across cultures, species and moments in time. Posthumanist thinking of the last decades has made an important case for defining the human not as a discrete, individualised entity, but as deeply entangled with other agents. Other voices argue that it is rather the re-enchantment of the human through a reparative, planetary humanism that is needed to create a more equal and ecological future, where life is seen as sacred and something to be cultivated and cared for through empathy, love and creativity. The Academy of Fine Art symposium Being Human Otherwise starts from the uncertain terrain between these perspectives, inviting contributions from the realms of art, philosophy, psychology and spirituality.

Conceived as an open-ended and interdisciplinary enquiry, the symposium seeks to embrace the posthumanist understanding of life as more-than-human and entangled with the material world, whilst recognizing the widespread and deeply felt longing to be more human than the techno-capitalist present currently seems to allow. The symposium’s keynote speaker Bayo Akomolafe has written that the category of 'the human' defined as a singular being with stable borders is a Eurocentric invention that privileges the isolated individual and obscures the transcorporeal and atmospheric aspects of our existence. Western modernity ushered in the concepts of individual agency and political emancipation but also brought disenchantment and a loss of connection with nature, spirituality and the sense of being part of a greater whole. Are there ways of restoring a sense of deep connectivity with the world, whilst maintaining the emancipatory possibility of individual agency? Are there aspects of the present we should let go of, and parts of our pre-modern cultures to be revisited and brought back to life to encourage us to take better care of the earth and each other? What do we dream of when imagining the re-enchantment of the human?

Many of the speakers explore inner worlds—of atoms, of living beings and of the cosmos—and how they connect. Through combining presentations on analytical psychology with quantum physics, introvert radicalism with the poetic sensibility of ecology, ecstatic mysticism with music, consciousness research and contemporary artmaking, the symposium hopes to inspire interdisciplinary imaginings as well as allow for connections to be made between ancient and future ways of knowing and being in the world.

Keywords: being human after posthumanism, quantum cosmology, art, participatory consciousness, C.G Jung’s collective unconscious, synchronicity, panpsychism, neuroemergence, ecology, inner worlds, imagination.