Postmoderns and After?
—40 years after The Postmodern Condition
Date: November 9th and 10th, 2019
Venue: Nanyuan Conference Room, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China
Speakers: Ashley WOODWARD (University of Dundee/UK), Sarah WILSON (Courtauld Institute of Art/UK), Bernard STIEGLER (Institute of Research and Innovation Paris & CAA/FR), Philippe PARRENO (Artist/FR), LI Yang (Peking University/CN), Yuk HUI (Bauhaus University Weimar & CAA/ HK), Hiroki AZUMA (Genron /JP)
Academic Support: Prof.Gao Shiming, Prof. Yu Xuhong and Prof. Guan Huaibin
Convener: Yuk Hui
Organizers:
China Academy of Art;
Institute for Collaborative Innovation in Chinese Visual Studies, CAA
School of Inter-media, CAA
Research Network for Philosophy and Technology
Preface
This conference takes the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the publication of Jean-François Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge appeared in 1979, to readdress the concept of the postmodern and its legacy today. The Postmodern condition and Lyotard’s other writings after 1979 remain a prophecy of our epoch: the judgment that Lyotard made on the transformation of the production of knowledge and the social organization by the new technology is not only valid but also bears increasing importance for a critical reassessment of an epoch dominated by discourses on AI, Machine Learning, and technological singularity.
Historically speaking, if the postmodern is considered a rupture from the European modernity and an invitation to critically understand the transformation of our society, this discourse remains very much a European one. Because what does it mean by modernity outside of Europe? If it is true, as claimed by some European intellectuals, that non-European countries, for example China, only have modernization but not modernity, then what does postmodern mean to cultures that didn’t have that kind of modernity which was target of Lyotard’s discourse? Or the embracement of the postmodern in non-European cultures in general remains nothing but a blind spot of their own intellectual reflections? Or the axis of time, which indicates a progress from premodern—modern—postmodern is nothing but a fabrication that has to be put into question? And if so, in what way can the question of world history be rearticulated in view of the technological convergence that we have today? Is it still possible to articulate different technological futures beyond this synchronization?
What would be the contribution of art in this process of re-opening, both the postmodern and after? This is a question that concerns the later Lyotard. In his 1985 Exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou titled Les Immatériaux, and his 1988 publication The Inhuman, Lyotard attempted to expose the potential transformative power of digital technology and its limit, by appealing to art and, and somewhat astonishingly, the teaching of the 13th century Japanese monk Dōgen Kigen. Les Immatériaux remains one of the most significant exhibitions in the 20th century. How can we evaluate these reflections and efforts of the late Lyotard since 1979? This symposium would like to gather scholars who have been working on Lyotard to critically reflect together on these questions, but also beyond Lyotard and his time.
