Source: Reset Modernity! An exhibition at ZKM, Karlsruhe, April 16 – August 21, 2016
Latour’s latest project? An exhibition. Postmodern? Goodness, no…it’s about “resetting” modernity, by which he and collaborators mean something like this:
What we are convinced of is that Modernity was a way to differentiate past and future, North and South, up and down, progress and regress, rich and poor, radical and conservative. However, such a compass, especially at a time of ecological crisis, is spinning wildly without offering much bearing. This is the time for a reset. Let’s pause for a while, follow a procedure and search for different sensors that could allow us to recalibrate our detectors, our instruments, to feel anew where we are and where we might wish to go.
The exhibition features six sections (which Latour calls “procedures” to animate your engagement with them):
- Reorienting global/local
- Reorienting objects and subjects
- Reorienting the world as outside/inside ourselves
- Reorienting limits without boundaries
- Reorienting politics vis-à-vis religion
- Reorienting technology as project vs. object
I wonder: perhaps art is the best way to grasp the ambiguities and clarities of these times…and if so, how shall people like me who write, write?
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