Anti-humanism in art? This notion most likely sets the alarm bells ringing right away, for it inevitably contains a hint of “inhumanity”. The question of how a worldview might look if it explicitly chose not to take human beings as its central point of reference has been a burning issue on many fronts for quite some time, both at the last Documenta and prior to this. In a sense, this would be an egalitarian being-in-the-world that would place itself on an equal footing with other living beings and organisms, rather than lording it over them. A worldview of this kind would follow through to its logical conclusion a process that has long been unfolding, namely the Copernican turn away from the human subject as the centre-point of all being.
Philosophical and artistic approaches seeking to develop this type of worldview can be traced back to early in the last century. Structuralism and post-structuralism were just the last major tips of a theory iceberg designed to shift the human subject away from its “centre-stage” position, yet overall this central position could not really be altered in pragmatic terms –at least, that is the impression we glean as we look back over the last 50 years. That is precisely why it is important to keep recalling the unfulfilled promises and ideas of these schools of thought and indeed to bring them up to date where possible. A further, complementary angle from which to explore these issues considers whether artistic practices were actually generally one step ahead anyway, playing a leading role in overturning the rule of the omnipotent subject.
Against the backdrop of these considerations, it certainly appears thoroughly paradoxical to reject the basis of this mode of thinking, namely subject-centred or person-centred reason, from an intellectual standpoint, i.e. from an approach grounded in thought. And it seems paradoxical as well to seek to undermine the foundations of all worldly and aesthetic experience by striving to encompass what lies outside this experience, and indeed to set out to construct a new foundation for thought rooted in this process of incorporation and opening up.
The essays in this edition address these paradoxes and aim to offer a brief inventory of approaches currently directed against »anthropocentrism«. Speculative realism, which has recently attracted a flurry of attraction, plays a vital role in this undertaking, seeking to enable the world of objects to regain its birthright, irrespective of whether a mind experiencing or perceiving that world is present. Two contributions focus on this nexus of issues that also play an increasingly important role in contemporary art production. On the one hand, in a series of interviews Rahma Khazam surveys positions and models that offer scope from a curatorial and artistic perspective to develop a practice of speculative realism. On the other hand, the theoretical foundations of this conceptual approach are scrutinised in a dialogue between Pascal Jurt and American Studies specialist Ridvan Askin. This examination also turns its attention to the type of political dimension that is inscribed – albeit not in an immediately obvious fashion – in speculative realism or, as the critics would say, is absent within it.
This kind of potential for conflict is however not just a hallmark of contemporary subject-critical thinking, but also continues to resound from the historical depths of the aforementioned post-structural attempt to move beyond the subject. In this debate increasing respect is given to the work of Félix Guattari, who is almost always referred to in the same breath as Gilles Deleuze, his long-standing intellectual partner and co-author, with whom he has developed his philosophy. Particular attention is paid to Guattari’s diagnosis of an “integrated world capitalism”, an idea he developed in the course of extensive travels in Latin America, which asserted the concept of a worldwide “machinic register” long before the pros and cons of globalisation were on the agenda. Max Hinderer’s essay addresses this “machinic” component, which leaves the subjective in the shade; by turning the spotlight on the “production line” of every form of subjectivity, Hinderer sketches a highly accurate portrait of the contemporary world.
Animism also plays an important role in Félix Guattari’s idea of an all-encompassing desiring-machine that moves beyond the subjective (an “assemblage“, to cite his term). This edition offers a condensed overview of thinking related to the immanence of a soul in the world of objects, which has been the focus of several exhibition projects over the last few years. Jasbir Puar, who in the wake of 9/11 examined “terrorist assemblages” and the ways in which the phenomenon she dubs “homonationalism” has been reinforced, responds to various facets of post-humanism. Puar concludes that in increasingly complex discursive networks the human becomes “one of many nodes” – rather than the central point of reference for interpreting the world, or for power and signification. Relativising thought in this way, or rather extending its boundaries, sets the course that all future criticism of the anthropocentric model must steer along, like it or not.
The contributors to this edition interrogate the potential contained within an attitude that actively turns away from instrumental human control, an attitude that is to a large extent still in its infancy, and which views itself as fundamentally limited, modest and incomplete. Without slipping into a regressive modus of unreflecting love of the “Other”, this stance endeavours to explore the prospect of artistic anti-humanism – a way of thinking that does not seek to promote inhumanity, but instead sees itself as an emancipatory project.
As you will have spotted, the magazine’s design has had a complete overhaul in this edition. Having kept the same layout and visuals, created by graphic designers Surface, unchanged for ten years, we felt it was time to give springerin a new contemporary twist. The editorial team hopes that you are as pleased as we are with these changes.