Semester One 2019 Archetype Two is the παρασιτοζ = parasitos = parasite of the classical Greek antiquity who was a tolerated, but not invited co-eater during a guest meal. He exchanges his talk and flattery just to be close to the food (para-sitos: he who is close to the meat).
Archetype Three is someone who benefits himself while offering society nothing in return, be they greedy capitalists or sponging good-for- nothings. The ‘people are parasites’ metaphor not only dehumanises an individual or group, but can justify its total annihilation.
Archetype Four is an interrupting noise, like the static in a system or interference on a channel, thwarting every attempt at efficient communi cation. It is a stray, unavoidable and unwanted capacitance between parts of an electronic component simply because of their close proximity.
Archetype One: A microbe, a leech, an insidious infection that takes without giving, while sometimes killing its host softly in their close embrace. A relationship between two species of plants or animals in which one benefits at the expense of the other.
Archetype One is a microbe, a leech, an insidious infection that takes without giving, while sometimes killing its host softly in their close embrace. It is a relationship between two species of plants or animals in which one benefits at the expense of the other.
Studium Generale The Parasite
3 October 1 — On the genealogy of the parasite Anders M. Gullestad
17 October 2 — Serres – Latour – Tsing, 1980 – 2019: from the parasite to the Matsutake mushroom Arie Altena
31 October 3 — Spirits in the material world Marina Otero Verzier
7 November 4 — Making the cut: presence as interruption Willem van Weelden
14 November 5 — Lecture-performance ‘The Horror Garden’ Gosie Vervloessem
21 November 6 — It is very difficult to be an island of perfection in a sea of misery, but please, do not doubt our sincerity Simon Wald-Lasowski
28 November 7 — Born this way? Are psychopaths human parasites? Hylke Vervaeke
5 December 8 — The cinematic parasite Dana Linssen All lectures are on Thursdays from 16:00 — 17:30 in the Auditorium, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague.
The Parasite: guest, noise, leech “The parasitic relation is intersubjective. It is the atomic form of our relations. Let us try to face it head-on, like death, like the sun. We are all attacked, together.” Michel Serres, in: The Parasite (1980) The parasite could be a microbe, a leech, an i nsidious infection that takes without giving, while killing its host softly in their close embrace. The parasite might also be a guest who exchanges his talk and flattery just to be close to the food ( para-sitos: he who is close to the meat). The parasite is also an interrupting noise, like the static in a system or interference on a channel, t hwarting every attempt at efficient communication. Moreover, the parasite has been historically despised as the most disgusting and useless of all organisms, deserving no less than total extinction. As such it has often been used as a metaphor to dehumanise, exclude and exterminate entire groups of people. This year’s Studium Generale is a p olyphonic exploration of the fuzzy semantic field around the parasite as an organism, phenomenon, dynamic, relation and metaphor. We will run the full gamut of its manifestations, from the negative to the positive, from the hyperscientific to the everyday. Point of departure is Michel Serres’ intriguing book Le Parasite (1980) in which he explores the idea of the world as essentially parasitic — that is,
infested with primordial, one-way, irreversible relations between host and guest. No system is without its flaws, losses, errors, accidents and excesses on which the parasite can feed. Therefore every system has its parasite, an agent ‘who has the last word, who produces disorder and who generates a different order’. Whenever a parasitic agent takes over and overturns a system, more diversity and complexity is created in the act. Next two semesters we will latch on this beast while shifting positions between host and guest, touching upon related concepts such as (cultural) appropiation, colonialism, invasion, infiltration, cannibalism, degeneration, but also generation and regeneration. As we unpack the concept layer by layer, we are invited to reflect on the question: how can this troubling and perhaps most promising of creatures feed from and feed into our artistic practice? What would it infect, what would it create? In these times in which a strict distinction between the cultural and the natural seems obsolete, and the biological and the political are more entangled as ever, the parasite invites us to critically review our relation to the world through a lopsided lens.
1 — Anders Gullestad’s talk will offer an overview of the history of the concept of the parasite, from classical Greek and Roman antiquity to the present. While originally only used to describe humans, starting from the middle of the 17th century, botanists gradually adopted the term, and later, other kinds of naturalists also followed suit. As a result, from the 19th century onwards, the concept ended up simultaneously referring to certain kinds of humans, to plants and to animals – and more specifically, to animals that were generally considered the lowest, most useless and degenerate in all of nature. Historically, the perceived similarity between these different groups of supposedly parasi
tical entities has functioned as an effective rhetorical tool, for example by the Nazis in their attempt to dehumanize Jews prior to and during WWII. This leads to the question: If the parasitic is indeed not only an unavoidable, but also necessary part of life – as c urrently held by many scholars within the natural sciences – is there a better way of c onceptualizing the parasite today? How can we take into account not only the damage caused by parasites, but also how they function as creative agents that lead systems to reorganize themselves in more complex manners, thereby bringing newness into being?
Erika Sprey Thursday 3 October, Auditorium KABK On the genealogy of the parasite, Anders M. Gullestad
2 — Arie Altena will trace the ideas of a couple of thinkers who all try to show that we need to fundamentally change our ideas of nature, society, and living together. Starting from Serres’ idea of the parasite, and his a ttention to climate change in Le contrat naturel (1990), via Bruno Latour’s conception of ‘network’ and ‘turn towards earth’ in Down to Earth (2017), to Anna Tsing ethnography of the Matsutake mushroom in The Mushroom at the End of the World (2015). Throughout he will refer to art projects
– as well as music, sound art and poetry – some of which were developed as part of the Dark Ecology project (2014 – 2016), initiated by Sonic Acts, a thematic festival with a strong focus on contemporary and historical developments at the intersections of art, technology, music and science.
Thursday 17 October, Auditorium KABK Serres – Latour – Tsing, 1980 – 2019: from the parasite to the Matsutake Mushroom, Arie Altena
3 — Hong Kong´s real estate market, dubbed as one of the most expensive in the world, is infiltrated by unwanted spectral residents. The presence of ghosts not only leaves apartments vacant but also affects the value of the property, as a ‘haunted’ apartment could bring down the price of all the flats on the same floor and even of the entire block. Ghosts are, therefore, an active agent for the regulation of the housing market by providing homes at between 20% and 30% below average. This presentation will navigate across a variety of agents and presences in Hong Kong, Amsterdam and beyond, to reflect on how these shape
spatial imaginaries and markets. Through the lenses of ghosts, as well as financial devices, computer viruses, a rtificial intelligences, it might be possible to reformulate questions of privacy, domesticity, property and belonging. The lecture borrows the title from the upcoming exhibition by artist Herman Chong and will reflect on the project ‘Malware: Symptoms of Viral infection’ on view until the 10th of November 2019 at Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Thursday 31 October, Auditorium KABK Spirits in the Material World, Marina Otero Verzier
4 — Interruption is a fundamental concept in Michel Serres’ ‘The Parasite’ and points to the moment when systems of belief break down. He argues that we should consider this moment of non-functioning not only as a necessity but as a blessing, rather than a curse. For systems should not work! But what if we become the parasite, the static of our own presence; when we make a cut in who we believe ourselves to be?
We become a dividuum, a split person, a schizoid being, an avatar. Should we be worried? Or should we embrace this transindividual, anonymous, noisy other that we become when we make such a cut? Let’s become the host and parasite of ourselves, the difference that connects.
Thursday 7 November, Auditorium KABK Making the cut : presence as interruption, Willem van Weelden
5 — The Horror Garden is an investigative performance and installation about the relationship between humans and plants, which questions a number of important issues. Do people treat plants with enough respect? Do plants feel recognized and u nderstood by people? Can the relationship between people and plants transcend the unlimited mutual exploitation? What can we learn about ourselves if we consider plants as the significant other and what kind of horror can this lead to? What happens when plants break
out of the background of our living rooms? When searching for an answer to these questions, Vervloessem calls on a number of horror movies in which plants frighten us. Sometimes they attack us head-on, but often the horror lies in waving branches and rustling bushes. Colonization runs like a red thread through the story: colonization of territory by humans and plants, colonization of organisms, bodies and spirits…
Thursday 14 November, Auditorium KABK Lecture-performance ‘The Horror Garden’, Gosie Vervloessem
6 — Parasitos contains two old Greek words: being close (para) to the meat (sitos). Before becoming a creepy creature or swear word – the way we know it now – it used to be a person who offered his company and interesting conversation in exchange for food, harking back to some very primordial notions of hosting and guesting. In fact, the parasitos was not so much an unwanted guest as a precursor of the court jester, troubadour and hobo, introducing influences from abroad, digesting all the left-overs that nobody wanted. True to the spirit of the ancient parasite this Studium Generale will invite
every semester an artist who has just experienced a wild host-guest situation during their artist-in-residency, in which they were close to the foreign meat and are left to digest the surplus. Simon Wald-Lasowski was resident at the Institute for Provocation in Bejing this year and supported by the Mondriaan Foundation. In this lecture he will recount his exuberant, sometimes nauseating research into the world’s biggest sample market, the digital underworld of Chinese kitsch, the popular culture’s leftovers on which his artistic practice feeds.
Thursday 21 November, Auditorium KABK It is very difficult to be an island of perfection in a sea of misery, but please, do not doubt our sincerity Simon Wald-Lasowski
7 — Psychopaths have been evoking fascination and fear for centuries. Are they cold blooded killers, using violence without remorse? Are they engaging in a parasitic lifestyle unable to really connect with others on a deeper, meaningful and emotional level? And do they really lack empathy? Are they born this way? Can neurobiology shed some light on these intriguing questions? Do some gene-variants predispose people to anti-social behavior?
Or is childhood maltreatment a better predictor? Is there a biological basis to antisocial behavior? And if biology and circumstances conspire to prime certain individuals toward violence, how much responsibility do people really bear for their actions? Should brain imaging/genetic profiling be used in legal cases? Can neuroscience assist in determining responsibility? And maybe, can we learn some valuable lessons from so-called ‘functional psychopaths’ who do not engage in criminal behavior? Is a pinch of psychopathic tendencies a good addition to the mix that defines our personality?
Thursday 28 November, Auditorium KABK Born this way? Are psychopaths human parasites? Hylke Vervaeke
8 — Dana Linssen will give an overview of the parasite in several feature films that have been crucial for the way it is shaped in our collective (unconscious) imagination. After some small detours through related ‘feeding’ tropes such as cannibalism, she will give us some clues on how we could watch and understand this year’s Palm d’Or winner Parasite by Korean film maker Bong Joon-Ho. Students are strongly recommended to watch this film before or after this lecture.
Synopsis ‘Parasite’ by Bong Joon Ho: Ki-taek’s family of four is close, but fully unemployed, with a bleak future ahead of them. The son Ki-woo is recommended by his friend, a student at a prestigious university, for a wellpaid tutoring job, spawning hopes of a regular income. Carrying the expectations of all his family, Ki-woo heads to the Park family home for an interview. Arriving at the house of Mr. Park, the owner of a global IT firm, Ki-woo meets Yeon-kyo, the beautiful young lady of the house. But following this first meeting between the two families, an unstoppable string of mishaps lies in wait.
Thursday 5 December, Auditorium KABK ‘The Parasite’, Dana Linssen
Library Table
In an attempt to expand our knowledge beyond the limited spatial and temporal confines of the Studium Generale, we have asked every lecturer to recommend five ‘footnotes’ to read, listen, view or experience, that have inspired their work in general and especially their lecture for the SG. They offer these titles for further self-education and enjoyment. Please direct yourself to the library where these titles will be on view at the designated Studium Generale table. Biographies 1 — Anders M. Gullestad (Bergen, Norway, 1979) finished his PhD on parasitical relationships in Herman Melville’s writings in 2014. He has published articles on the parasite as conceptual figure in journals such as Deleuze Studies, Political Concepts and Leviathan. In addition, he has also written various articles on the intersection between literature and politics. He is one of the co-editors of the anthology Exploring Textual Action, and one of the co-authors of the book Dei litterære sjangrane. Currently, he is associate professor of Scandinavian Area Studies at the University of Bergen. 2 — Arie Altena (Deventer, 1966) works as a writer/editor for a.o. Sonic Acts and V2_Lab for the Unstable Media. Since the rise of the WWW in the early 1990s he writes about the entanglements of art and technology. As part of the Sonic Acts team, he co-organises the Sonic Acts Festival, and co-curated the Dark Ecology project 2014–2016. He is the author of What is community art? (2017) and he has edited several Sonic Acts publications (such as The Poetics of Space (2010), Travelling
Time (2011), The Dark Universe (2013) and The Geologic Imagination (2015)), for which he also contributed essays and interviews with artists, musicians and theorists. He is currently a member of the advisory board of the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the jury for the Witteveen+Bos-Art+Technology Award. He studied Literary Theory and has worked as an editor for a.o. Metropolis M and Mediamatic Magazine. 3 — Marina Otero Verzier (A Coruña, Spain, 1981) is director of research at Het Nieuwe Instituut and member of the Artistic Team for Manifesta 13. Recently, she curated the exhibition ‘Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective by Jonas Staal’ (2018), and co-curated ‘Malware: Syptoms of Viral Infection’ at HNI, and ‘I See That I See What You Don’t See’ at La Triennale Di Milano (2019). Previously, Otero was the curator of ‘Work, Body, Leisure’, the Dutch Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, and co-curator of the 2016 Oslo Architecture Triennale. She edited books such as Architecture of Appropriation (2019), Work, Body, Leisure (2018) and After Belonging (2016), and currently teaches at RCA in London. 4 — Willem van Weelden (Amsterdam, 1960), has a background in social philosophy and visual art. He is a teacher, lecturer, researcher and independent writer on new media culture, media theory and interaction design. He never stopped linking media theory to the dilemma’s and intrinsic ‘problems’ within the tradition of the visual arts, and probes network culture from the vantage point of trying to open new contexts, vistas and habitats for the arts and social emancipation. He is committed to new media culture from 1990 onwards and has published on this topic in various magazines and catalogues. He was involved in numerous new media projects as a creative director and coach. He has taught and teaches at the HKU Art and Media Technology (BA), MAHKU (Editorial Design), Artez (BA&MA), Design Academy Eindhoven (BA & MA), DOGTIME, Rietveld Academie, KABK (BA&MA), and Sint Lukas (BA & MA) in Brussels. In the summer of 2018 he completed his MA at the Sandberg
Institute (Critical Studies) with a project on Jean-Francois Lyotard’s media critical philosophy of time (‘Time as Matter, doing philosophy by other means’). 5 — Gosie Vervloessem (Herentals, Belgium, 1973) As a performance artist, Gosie Vervloessem experiments with the laws of physics for domestic use. Her work focuses on observing natural phenomena and asking questions about it. Everything seems so logic, but what is the logic behind it? In 2014 the focus of Vervloessem’s work shifted to eating, digestion and indigestion. It resulted in lecture performances, open labs and an online magazine about slow processes, invisible friends and foes, about hygiene and control in the kitchen. How to relate to an unclassifiable world that is chaotic, u nhygienic and messy? Vervloessem has been pushing the idea of the kitchen as a sanctuary and a playground for uninvited guests even further. Her research invites invasive alien species in a domestic setting. What are the values that underpin invasion ecologies, and how can they be applied or denied in baking an apple pie? Currently her research dives deeper in the relation between the vegetal kingdom and Homo Sapiens, through the genre of horror. With her work, she investigates the underlying ideas of our perceptions of nature. Credits — Concept and performance: Gosie Vervloessem, Dramaturgy: Einat Tuchman, Production: wpZimmer, With the support of: cc Strombeek en de School van Gaasbeek 6 — Simon Wald-Lasowski (Paris, France, 1980) collects, studies and mocks the iconography of images, objects and signs that are so prevalent in contemporary society. Simultaneously, his multiform practice conveys a genuine love for disdained tacky gadgets and obscene curiosities, which he obsessively hoards. Objects become actors in satirical subversive installations which confront viewers to absurd issues of the human c ondition and to the enormous underbelly of our morbid consumerism. Having worked for 12 years as a photographer Simon embraced a multiform practice
in 2017 during his residency at the Jan Van Eyck Academie. 7— Hylke Vervaeke (Leuven, Belgium, 1978) is a medical biologist with a wide range of interests, among which the science of sexual behaviour and human mind, evidence-based self-interventions on how to keep your brain healthy and hence your stress levels low, and the neurobiology of mental variations and disorders and the societal implications thereof. She teaches the courses ‘Brain & Mind’ and ‘Brain & Behavior’ at Amsterdam University College and is a lecturer of Neuroscience at the VU University Amsterdam. Hylke obtained her Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences, summa cum laude, at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, with an internship at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam at the ‘Interfacultair Onderzoeksinstituut Neurowetenschappen’ on the neurobiology of addiction. In Amsterdam she received her PhD (‘Social context and behavioural aspects of ecstasy use’) from the University of Amsterdam in 2009. 8 — Dana Linssen (1966) is philosopher and film critic. For over ten years she has been writing for the Dutch newspaper NRC and until recently she works as the editor in chief of the Filmkrant (1998 – 2019). In 2009 she received the Louis Hartlooper Prize for Film journalism. She is lecturer at ArtEZ, Hogeschool van de Kunsten Utrecht and curator of the Director’s Forum Nederlands Film Festival (NFF) and Critics’ Choice Internationaal Film Festival (IFF).
Studium Generale
The Studium Generale is a programme that hovers, as it were, over the departments: it addresses themes that may not have an immediate practical use, but are potentially relevant to each and every student. It aims to introduce students to fields that aren’t directly addressed within their own course such as theatre, philosophy, poetry, film, sociology, invention, science, or a combination of these subjects. It is, more or less, a semi-theoretical programme to help you assess your own work from a different perspective and to draw inspiration from other fields of knowledge. The Studium Generale is a gift to the students: especially for them, famous actors, photographers, scientists, and many others will visit the academy to deliver a lecture on their professional field, ending in a discussion open to all. Each student’s work is fuelled by the impulses surrounding him or her by the society they live in, and it’s important to gain an understanding of this environment from which you can distillate your own unique interests and determine your own position. Especially for artists, it’s imperative to see beyond the borders of your specific professional field, to open yourself up to the grand and unorthodox thoughts of others and to integrate these with your own ideas. The Studium Generale hopes to break down barriers between departments and initiate collaborations to pave the way for groundbreaking new ideas. To do so, Studium Generale works closely with each department to complement and broaden their existing programmes.
Study Credits
In the academic year of 2019 – 2020 there will be 20 lectures of Studium Generale KABK, 8 before and 12 after Christmas. A total of 20. Every student must attend 16 lectures in total for this study year. The Studium Generale programme is a mandatory part of the curriculum. For some departments, these mandatory credits are to be taken in second year, for others in third year. The department in question will determine in which year students can follow Studium Generale as part of their studies. Every lecture will last for approximately 90 minutes, 20 lectures bring the total sum to an estimated 30 hours. This represents 1 study credit that will be allocated after attending the lectures. As in other courses students are expected to be present at least 80% of the lectures for this course. Attendance to the lectures will be monitored. Please bring your student card. The c redit earned for Studium Generale will be part of the general assessments and cannot be replaced by any other alternative activities. Colophon Head of Studium Generale Erika Sprey Coordinator of Studium Generale Janne van Gilst Design Dayna Casey Intern – Brechje Krah Copyright 2019 – 2020 KABK Royal Academy of Art Thanks to all the participants, the studio, all coordinators and heads of departments.