[NAME]

Rendezvous with Space: of Concepts and Worlds
Reza Negarestani
Saturday, June 24, 5pm
[NAME]
6572 SW 40th Street
Free and open to the public

In October 2022, [NAME] presented Enrique Castro-Cid:Protocol Pressure, the first in a series of programs into the work and research of the late artist. In a continued effort to locate Castro-Cid’s work within contemporary theoretical and artistic lines of thought, we’ve invited philosopher Reza Negarestani to reflect on the way in which the notion of intelligence expands alongside evolving concepts of space.

. . .

1937, a French mathematician named Élie Cartan shakes the world. What had already been achieved in geometry, was now achieved for the ideal observer of physics: A generalization of the concept of the frame of reference for an observer infinitely wandering in space, but locally twisted akin to exotic objects of mathematics like a Klein bottle back to the world itself. No one at that point could talk about facing or confronting the world as opposed to the ego, because all egos and observers were now expressions of an ever-deepening abyss—rafts at the whim of an ocean.

Since Cartan’s formulation of the moving frame, the world of mathematical physics and with that the abstraction of space—in fact, the whole notion of encountering the world—has changed beyond all traditional recognitions. The focus of this presentation is the rediscovery of the concepts of space, world and looking at the world. A brief historical survey of cognitive and formal techniques aiming at liberating the concept of space will be provided only to highlight the possibilities of such techniques in art,architecture and above all a notion of intelligence that expands itself by enlarging the very world of which it is a part.

. . .

Reza Negarestani is a philosopher. He has contributed extensively to journals and anthologies and lectured at numerous international universities and institutes. His current philosophical project is focused on rationalist universalism beginning with the evolution of the modern system of knowledge and advancing toward contemporary philosophies of rationalism, their procedures as well as their demands for special forms of human conduct. He is the author of Cyclonopedia (re.press, 2008). His latest book, Intelligence andSpirit (Urbanomic / Sequence Press, 2018) is focused on philosophy ofintelligence at the intersections between cognitive sciences, German idealism,and theoretical computer science.