Events / The Destituent Power Lab
2023-05-16 - / , London
The subject of destituent power is adopted as a critical framework for thinking together around forms of political subjectivity today. Following Giorgio Agamben’s theories of the destituent, as grounded in acts or positions of withdrawal, dispersal and exit, we’re interested to consider in what ways the destituent may lend input to reconceptualizing forms of agency and self-determination. What becomes of political subjectivity, and understandings of activism or citizenship, by way of the destituent, which is more aligned with evasion? If the destituent aims at “deactivating” the operations of constituent power, staggering today’s biopolitical systems (as built upon fundamental exclusions), what becomes of the quest for visibilization central to participation? And in what sense can it offer entry points for engaging current challenges, from educational to environmental?
The Destituent Lab is posed as a collective space for investigating together Agamben’s destituent theories. This includes sharing indvidual knowledges and practices, and utilizing the destituent as a trigger for speculating as to its effects on current research and shared concerns. As Agamben suggests, the destituent is posed as another way of thinking politics.
Organized in collaboration with Elena Loizidou, with participating scholars and practitioners, including Nathan Moore, Elin Eyborg Lund, Saul Newman, among others.