DUST (Dublin Unit for Speculative Thought) presents:
Weaponising Speculation Conference
2-3 March, Independent Colleges, 60-63 Dawson Street, Dublin 2.
This gathering is the signature event organized by D.U.S.T (Dublin Unit for Speculative Thought), an art/theory collective recently founded by Michael O’Rourke, Paul Ennis and Fintan Neylan. The primary aim of DUST is to stage conversations between disparate groups of people—artists, aestheticians, philosophers, non-philosophers, theorists—who find themselves at the fringes of academic institutions and disciplines and who are also broadly interested in speculative realism and post-continental philosophy.
“Weaponizing Speculations” is a non-traditional assembly which has as its impetus the opening up of a dialogue between artists, para-academics and the Speculative Realist “community” here in Dublin and elsewhere. Here is the description:
“Distinct from the norm. Distinct even from the academic norm. Twice removed the para-academic is doubly unwanted. The ones you have trained are set loose and they know your secrets. They are pests and they want to be armed. The contemporary para-academic is untethered. Promises have gone unfulfilled and yet avenues have opened up elsewhere. To the artists, to the creators, to the fringe, wherever the real can be captured. It is in these topoi that the real work happens.
Speculation: to think the world of experience, beyond such experience. But how to seize this reality, how to speculate upon that which the academy has prohibited? Before the storms the para-academic needs to equip herself. Not only with tools, but weapons.
‘Weaponizing Speculation’ is an exploration of the various expressions of DIY theory operative in the elsewheres,the shafts and tunnels of the para-academy. We seek those thoughts that go beyond the institution, beyond the linguistic, beyond the human, to the far reaches of the incommensurate and the extinct; we seek conceptual armoury which will aid thinkers in the siege to reclaim the real.
We invite papers from those lost at sea”.
Those lost at sea are:
Saturday 2 March
Independent Colleges, Room 101
10.00-10.15 Introductory remarks: Paul Ennis, Fintan Neylan, Michael O’Rourke
10.15-11.00 Session 1: Robert Jackson, Rebecca O’Dwyer
11.00-11.15 Break
11.15-12.15 Session 2: Nick Srnicek, Dylan Trigg
12.15-13.00 Session 3: Erin Stapleton, Alice Rekab
13.00-14.00 Lunch
14.00-14.45 Session 4: Francis Halsall, Alan Boardman
14.45-15.30 Session 5: Isabel Nolan, Sergey Sistiaga
15.30-15.45 Break
16.00-16.45 Session 6: MOUTH (Edia Connole, Scott Wilson) with Pat Zaidan, Mairtin Mac Con Iomaire, Kathy Tynan
20.00-22.00 Opening of Weaponising Speculation Exhibition, BLOCK T Gallery, Smithfield, Dublin 7
Sunday 3 March
Independent Colleges, Room 101
10.00-10.45 Session 7: Ridvan Askin, Ciara McMahon
10.45-11.30 Session 8: John Ryan, Ciara Griffin
11.30-12.30 Lunch
12.30-13.15 Session 9: Rob Murphy, Andy Weir
13.15-14.00 Session 10: Dock Currie, Sam Keogh
14.00-14.15 Break
14.15-15.15 Session 11: Teresa Gillespie, Ben Woodard
15.15-16.00 Session 12: Karen Dewart McEwen, Scott Wilson
16.00-16.15 Closing remarks: Paul Ennis, Fintan Neylan, Michael O’Rourke
18.00-20.00 Weaponising Speculation Exhibition, BLOCK T Gallery, Smithfield, Dublin 7
D.U.S.T (Dublin Unit for Speculative Thought) presents:
Weaponising Speculation Exhibition
VENUE: BLOCKT, Smithfield Chambers, Smithfield Square, Dublin 7
OPENING: Saturday 2 March
TIME: 8 pm-10pm
COST: Free
Weaponising Speculation continues March 3 (6-8pm); March 4-March 6 (11am-6pm) and March 7 (11am-8pm)
http://dublindust.wordpress.com/
Exhibiting Artists:
Alan Boardman
Teresa Gillespie
Ciara McMahon
Rob Murphy
Alice Rekab
John Ryan
Andy Weir
Speculation: to think the world of experience, beyond such experience. But how to seize this reality, how to speculate upon that which the academy and the art world has prohibited? Before the storm the para-academic and the artist need to equip themselves. Not only with tools, but weapons. Weaponizing Speculation is an exploration of the various expressions of art and theory operative in the elsewheres, the shafts and tunnels of the para-academy; an expedition armoured with techniques of thought that go beyond the institution, beyond the linguistic, beyond the human, to the far reaches of the incommensurate and the extinct; it builds a conceptual arsenal which will aid thinkers in the siege to reclaim the real.
The Weaponising Speculation exhibition is an accompaniment to the conference of the same name organized by D.U.S.T (Dublin Unit for Speculative Thought), an art/theory collective recently founded by Michael O’Rourke, Paul Ennis and Fintan Neylan. The primary aim of DUST is to stage dialogues between disparate groups of people—artists, aestheticians, philosophers, non-philosophers, theorists—who find themselves at the fringes of academic institutions and disciplines and who are also broadly concerned with speculative realism. “Weaponising Speculation” features paintings, sculptures, video and sound works by seven artists who are also speaking at the conference which will take place at Independent Colleges on March 2nd and 3rd. The show is a loose collocation of works which cluster around a shared set of interests including speculative realism, object oriented ontology, post-continental philosophy, new materialisms, systems theory, transcendental nihilism, and para-academic practices.
The exhibition will conclude with a conversation amongst the artists about how the exhibition as a “coreless experiment” isonomic with the Weaponising Speculation conference has succeeded or failed and will also consider the future trajectories of speculative thought and art/theory.
Speculative Heresy 
Reblogged this on Progressive Geographies and commented:
Weaponizing Speculation exhibition and conference in Dublon.
This seems strikingly similar to Heidegger’s ‘authenticity’ & also his politics…
“Weaponizing Speculation is an exploration of the various expressions of art and theory operative in the elsewheres, the shafts and tunnels of the para-academy; an expedition armoured with techniques of thought that go beyond the institution, beyond the linguistic, beyond the human, to the far reaches of the incommensurate and the extinct; it builds a conceptual arsenal which will aid thinkers in the siege to reclaim the real.”
‘aid thinkers in the siege to reclaim the real.’
What exactly does that mean? How does one ‘reclaim’ what one is immersed in?