TIM_BM_014 COVIDOLOGY

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2020
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Luis Armand, PhD. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Jana Horáková, Ph.D. (alternate examiner)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Jana Horáková, Ph.D.
Department of Musicology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Bc. Jitka Leflíková
Supplier department: Department of Musicology – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Thu 19. 11. 9:00–17:40 B2.24, Fri 20. 11. 9:00–17:40 G32
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 50 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 1/50, only registered: 0/50, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/50
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 17 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
"Revolution spreads not by contamination, but by *resonance* — a resonance of ideas, exposed as *musical vibrations* which grow so dense that we may no longer wish to turn back…" [Jean-Marie Gleize]
  • This seminar engages with the phenomenon of "covidology" in the social/mediasphere, with a focus on intellectual & cultural radicalism. The overlap between catastrophe discourse, quasi-revolutionary/militant activism, & the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique occasion for examining previously established truisms in the relation of "theory" to "praxis" & the role of "interactive media" in constituting the global "real." What has occurred since BAudrillard's proclamation at the beginning of the 1990s that "the Gulf War did not take place" (i.e. other than as a media event)? In the present environment of conspiranoia & fake news, what is the relationship between the "actual" viral pandemic of COVID-19 & the reality-shaping discourses & memology of coronachan? Is COVID=19 an evolutionary technology? Is COVID=19 an instrument of historical discontinuity or of the consolidation of the parmaco=surveillance world order? And is there a critical theory adequate to the task of grasping its implications beyond the reflexology of instant opinionising?
  • KEYWORDS
  • phenomenon, procurement, logistics, isolation, contagion, stimulus, riot, biopolitics, ecology, capitalist realism, immunology, vaccine, asymptomatic, pharma, geopolitics, terraforming, automatic revolution, biological warfare
    • Literature
    • Bruno Latour 'This is a global catastrophe that has come from within' https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/06/bruno-latour-coronavirus-gaia-hypothesis-climate-crisis
    • Franco 'Bifo' Berardi, "Diary of the Psycho-Deflation": https://www.versobooks.com/…/4600-bifo-diary-of-the-psycho-…
    • Interior Ministry, "Covidology: The Day after the one Before": https://alienistmanifesto.wordpress.com/2020/…/30/covidology
    • series of articles: https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/category/counter-propaganda/
    • Nathalie Olah, "Viral terminology, Technology, and Capitalism": https://www.versobooks.com/…/4662-viral-terminology-technol…
    • Giorgio Agamben, "Requiem for the Students": https://medium.com/@ddean3000/requiem-for-the-students-giorgio-agamben-866670c11642
    • Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh, "Principles of Coronademonology": https://www.urbanomic.com/document/principles-of-coronademonology/
    • Carlo Caduff, "What Went Wrong Corona and the World after the Full Stop": https://www.academia.edu/42829792/What_Went_Wrong_Corona_and_the_World_after_the_Full_Stop
    • Peter Engelmann and Jean-Luc Nancy (interview), "The Dark Side of Progress": http://lived.ink/2020/06/11/the-dark-side-of-progress/
    • Tithi Bhattacharya and Gareth Dale, "Covid Capitalism: General Tendencies, Possible 'Leaps'”: https://spectrejournal.com/covid-capitalism/
    • Léon de Mattis, "Epidemic crisis and crisis of capital": https://non.copyriot.com/epidemic-crisis-and-crisis-of-capital/
    • Fernando Sdrigotti, "Time/Immaterial": https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4686-time-immaterial
    • Philip Mirowski / Politics Theory Other, "Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste": https://soundcloud.com/…/85-never-let-a-serious-crisis-go-t…
    • New Left Review's "A Planetary Pandemic" issue: https://newleftreview.org/issues/II122
    • Simon Elmer, "Giorgio Agamben and the Bio-Politics of COVID-19": https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2020/04/25/giorgio-agamben-and-the-bio-politics-of-covid-19/
    • M. Foucault, G. Agamben, J.L. Nancy, R. Esposito, S. Benvenuto, D. Dwivedi, S. Mohan, R. Ronchi, M. de Carolis, "Coronavirus and philosophers (European Journal of Psychoanalysis": https://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/coronavirus-and-philosophers/
    • Jörg Heiser, “Artists in Quarantine: public intellectuals, and the trouble with empty heroics": https://www.art-agenda.com/features/332992/artists-in-quarantine-public-intellectuals-and-the-trouble-with-empty-heroics
    • Interior Minstry, "The Price of a Lungfull of Air": https://alienistmanifesto.wordpress.com/2020/04/01/the-price-of-a-lungfull-of-air/
    • Priscilla Wald, "Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narative": https://read.dukeupress.edu/…/ContagiousCultures-Carriers-a…
    • Bram Büscher and Robert Fletcher, "Close the tap! COVID-19 and the need for Convivial Conservation": https://www.versobooks.com/…/4679-close-the-tap-covid-19-an…
    • Slavoj Zizek, Pandemic / There Is No Outside: Covid-19 Dispatches (London: Verso)
    • Venkatesh Rao, "Pandemic Time: A Distributed Doomsday Clock": https://www.noemamag.com/pandemic-time-a-distributed-doomsday-clock/
    • Paul B. Preciado, "Learning from the Virus": https://www.artforum.com/print/202005/paul-b-preciado-82823
    • Reza Negarestani, "Even though this pandemic will succumb in time, it has created its own stamp upon the human psyche": https://twitter.com/QuickTake/status/1258149474737758211
    Teaching methods
    lecture, discussion
    Assessment methods
    terms of the assessment: a research paper (essay) of 2,500-3,000 wds on the topic of the lecture
    Language of instruction
    Czech
    Further Comments
    Study Materials
    The course is taught only once.
    • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
    • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2020/TIM_BM_014