This talk will use the sticky and, on first glance, probably rather stale-looking notions of "foundation" and "institution" as prisms to bring together a few of my activities into (hopefully!) some sort of coherence. One of its aims will be to probe at a problem that has been central, explicitly or implicitly, to my work as a co-founder of experimental arts radio station, Cashmere Radio, and as a researcher in philosophy and law: how can we think of beginnings, of origins even, that don't determine in advance how things will develop? How, that is, do we bring ourselves towards work that is oriented towards a future, without constraining what it could become? I suspect this question, obviously far too big for one talk, sits at the centre of many social concerns too. It has definitely been the throbbing nerve of the radio's work and constant self-examination: How do we bring structure and resilience to the collectivities we build together - be it to work, support, or make together - without "structure" and "resilience" becoming zombie values above and beyond the work itself? And if something is worth preserving, how do we pass it on? These questions, I think, touch on how we could imagine living together both with and without institutions, and I will try and bring some philosophical reflections to test some of the work I have contributed to the radio as well as the radio as a whole. Hopefully something remains in the confronation between my solitary research and the collectively organised practice, the consistency of which I have never quite been able to make sense of. But maybe contradictions are the best thing to found upon anyway...
Daniel Gottlieb is a Berlin-based researcher, translator and radio artist. In 2015 he co-founded the experimental radio station Cashmere Radio in Berlin and is currently a doctoral student at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) at Kingston University. In 2023, he co-edited (with Cooper Francis) the book "Institution: Critical Histories of Law". His work with Cashmere Radio has been exhibited at Lenbachhaus and Lothringer 13, München, documenta 15 and Kunstverein Braunschweig and he has initiated and curated numerous radiophonic and artistic projects within the virtual and physical space of the radio.
The presentation will be held in English. Questions and subsequent discussion can also be asked/conducted in German.
Date
23.01.24, 19:30 Uhr
Seminar room of the Basisklasse Bildende Kunst