IMPACT20 – Lecture by Rosi Braidotti

IMPACT20 – PLANETARY ALLIANCES
Outlines for polyphonic communities
Online–Symposium with Lars Blank, Rosi Braidotti & Johannes Paul Raether
In English.

THU 12.11. 18 H (CET)
Rosi Braidotti ›Posthuman Critical Thought‹
Lecture

As a pioneer of posthumanism and a feminist theorist, Prof. Dr. Rosi Braidotti is a seminal figure in contemporary philosophical discourse. As the boundaries between the human and its others are becoming increasingly blurred, through our digital lives and reproductive technologies, the question of what it means to be human is taking a new turn. Braidotti proposes new and affirmative ways of producing knowledge and building communities.

This lecture outlines the main concepts and building blocks of a critical analysis of the posthuman condition. It starts from the notion of a posthuman convergence between post-humanism and post-anthropocentrism. The former critiques the Eurocentric idea of the ›Man of Reason‹, pleading for the rights of the de-humanized and excluded others. The latter targets anthropocentric species supremacy and human exceptionalism, pleading for ecological activism, trans-national environmental justice and the rights of the non-humans. Situated between the 4th Industrial Revolution and the 6th Extinction, the posthuman convergence is not a utopian science fiction fantasy, but a material component of our historical reality.
Arguing that humanity is not a neutral term but rather one that indexes access to specific powers, values and norms and entitlements, posthuman critical thought defends the notion of critical thinking as creative practice. It provides both tools for critique and imaginative figurations to describe what kind of posthuman subjects ›we‹ are in the process of becoming. Emphasizing that ›we‹ are in this predicament together, but ›we‹ are not one and the same, but we are connected by our shared existence on this planet and by an affirmative ethics of inter-dependence.

About IMPACT20 – PLANETARY ALLIANCES
For years, experts from all fields of knowledge have been occupied with the complex interconnections and vital dependencies between the human and the non-human. In November 2020 under the title ›Planetary Alliances - Outlines for polyphonic communities‹, IMPACT20 opened a polylogue on relationship networks in which humans are just one actor among many.
As a scientific and artistic think-tank, IMPACT20 criss-crossed perspectives from biotechnology, natural science, philosophy and contemporary art: Lars Blank, Rosi Braidotti and Johannes Paul Raether reflected on the relativities, metabolisms and relationships between the elements and protagonists of our world and how these impact on ecological, social, economic and technological developments in a community. How can new alliances that no longer place humankind at the centre of perception, shape and define new models of societies?

A project within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.