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10 Sep 2012 /

On Seeds and Multispecies Intra-Action: Disowning Life / Beatriz Preciado. Queer bulldogs: Histories of Human-canin Co-breeding and Biopolitical Resistance.

CONFERENCE / SEMINAR / 10:00 10 SEP 2012 / Ständehaus
On Seeds and Multispecies Intra-action: Disowning Life

Event page

11:45 – 12:30
Beatriz Preciado. Queer bulldogs: Histories of Human-canin Co-breeding and Biopolitical Resistance.

Brought to Continental Europe by English textile workers during the 1848 crisis of industrial capitalism, the “toy” bulldog became during the end of the XIX century the life companion of prostitutes, lesbians, streetwalkers, and underground artists. Following Donna Haraway and Judith Butler, this talk explores the biopolitical co-production of animal breeds and human gender, sexual, and race identities and claims for transspecies alliances to resist contemporary technobipower.

12:30 – 12:45
Q&A

 

Disowning Life is a two-day public conference that takes as its starting point dOCUMENTA (13)’s ecological perspective, building on a global alliance between different forms of research and knowledges that is actively being developed in a variety of fields. On September 10, the first part of this conference discusses humans as only one form of animal life amongst many others. On September 15, the second part focuses on questions around food and seeds, water and land, energy and de-growth. At a time when the models of production on which our world is based have been proved insufficient, and the arbitrary division of roles largely unjust, thinking about the way in which we sustain life on the planet is not just an interesting field of research but a crucial necessity.

The development of a collective consciousness that allows us to think and feel in sympathy with all types of mineral, vegetal, and animal life is allowing a new narrative to emerge—one that shifts the position of humans in the constellation of the natural world, placing us in a more balanced  scenario in relation to other beings. Notions revolving around seeding and the idea of multispecies intra-action are introducing new perspectives in eco-feminism that place the problem of difference or “othering” beyond gender. Inspired by and hoping to elaborate on the interrelated horizons of two main thinkers in these fields— multispecies biologist and cultural theorist Donna Haraway and seeds activist Vandana Shiva—this final conference of dOCUMENTA (13) gathers some of the most rigorous scholars, artists, and activists in these fields together with a range of committed new voices. 

Beatriz Preciado is a philosopher specializing in queer theory. S/he has recently published, in Spanish and French, “T Junkie” (2008), an essay about what s/he calls “the pharmacopornographic regime.” Preciado teaches philosophy and gender studies at the Université Paris VIII, and the Independent Studies Program (PEI) at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA).

 

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