During the EYE symposium on Found Footage on April 20th 2012 my words of thanks for receiving the catalogue of the opening exhibition:

A lecture and masterclass with James Williams on the occasion of the Dutch translation of Difference and Repetition

Spui25  and NICA

A Response to Catherine Malabou’s What Should We Do with Our Brain?

On 28 and 29 October 2011 Catherine Malabou gave a masterclass and lecture in Amsterdam for the Netherlands Institute of Cultural Analysis (NICA). Below the text of the presentation I gave in response to her important work on continental philosophy’s uneasy relation to (neuro)biology. To be continued.

I would like to thank the organizers, Adam Chambers, Thijs Witty, Gianluca Turricchia, and Baylee Brits for taking the initiative to invite Catherine Malabou to Amsterdam and organizing yesterday’s masterclass and today’s lecture. I feel honored to be asked to give a response to this important work. Before I start doing that, I would like to say that I did not read the lecture beforehand but I agreed with Catherine Malabou that I would reflect on some ideas from the book What Should We Do with Our Brain? and try to make some connections to my own work that deals with the brain in a more cultural analytical way. Therefore my apologies if I repeat some things that have already been addressed by Catherine Malabou herself, or if I do not address directly some issues raised in her lecture but I hope nevertheless to be able to make some remarks for further discussion.

files/Flyer_Astro-Morphomata.pdf

Masterclass

In October (28-29), NICA hosts a masterclass and lecture with Catherine Malabou, organized by Adam Chambers, Thijs Witty, Gianluca Turricchia, and Baylee Brits. The masterclass is open to graduate students and interested staff, and is designed as an intensive workshop to question, extend, and experiment with Malabou’s important theory of plasticity. In addition to the workshop, there will also be a lecture by Professor Malabou, followed by a response from Professor Patricia Pisters from the University of Amsterdam. Catherine Malabou is a French philosopher who is currently professor at the Université Paris-X Nanterre and the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) at London’s Kingston University.