Speculative Gesture

Professors: Nicolas Prignot, Alexis Zimmer

We have entered an era marked by major ecological crises. These crises require new modes of thinking that escape the dualisms used as landmarks and justifications by modernity. Among the responses to these crises, we will explore propositions that defy general categorizations, seeking situated ways of thinking in touch with concrete situations. We will study various approaches, using human science inquiries (anthropology, history, philosophy) that emphasize current issues and reflect on possible alternatives. We will be particularly attentive to the way they involve singular effects that imply other ways of thinking and feeling, other ways of forging rich, interspecific and promising relationships. The course will also encourage the students to produce narratives that integrate these nonhuman multiplicities by way of narrative workshops. This course is linked to the Narratives and Experimentation – Speculative Narration (MA) workshop.