Audible Observatories is hosting a round table discussion on Saturday, November 17th. This discussion is titled Multispecies Intra-Actions and it features one of our artists, Karin Bolender. The round-table is associated with the Meetings of the American Anthropological Association but is a free public event.
Multispecies Intra-Actions: A Round Table
SOMArts Cultural Center.
Saturday, November 17.
10am to noon
followed by an art performance by Karin Bolender at 2pm.
Organizer: Eben Kirksey
Participants: Karen Barad, Charis Thompson, Agustín Fuentes, Karin Bolender, Eben Kirksey, Natasha Myers, and Tamar V Scoggin.
Karen Barad coined the term “intra-action” to get beyond the metaphysics of individualism underpinning conventional understandings of “interactions.” Intra-actions involve the mutual constitution of entangled agencies. Things, or objects, are ontologically inseparable in Barad’s work—they do not precede their interaction, but rather, these agents emerge through particular intra-actions. Donna Haraway recently brought Barad’s insights from the realm of physics to the domains of ecology, ethology, and multispecies ethnography. “Responsibility is a relationship crafted in intra-action,” writes Haraway, “through which entities, subjects and objects, come into being.” Bluring the distinction between a conventional “oral” session, and an open-ended “roundtable”, this session will put Barad into conversation with a diverse panel of ethnographers, primatologists, and artists. Departing from Anna Tsing’s suggestion that “human nature is a multispecies interaction”, we will collectively explore multispecies intra-actions that are generating novel approaches to being with others in the world. This panel will orbit around published texts, and working papers, by each of the senior theorists, emerging scholars, culture workers, and graduate students who are participating. Audience members are invited to read these texts, which will be made available on-line by October 15th, and join the conversation.
