The Editor's read: Some Experiments in Art and Politics by Bruno Latour
From the archive is this essay titled Some Experiments in Art and Politics published in 2011 in eflux which author is Bruno Latour.
This essay is also a reference in the architectural theory, at the very least in my view. I warmly suggest this essay for those with interest in architectural theory but also in global infrastructure, networks, information, zones, etc…
The word "network" has become a ubiquitous designation for technical infrastructures, social relations, geopolitics, mafias, and of course, our new life online. But networks, in the way they are usually drawn, have the great visual defect of being "anemic" and "anorexic", in the words of philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, who has devised a philosophy of spheres and envelopes. Unlike networks, spheres are not anemic, not just points and links, but complex ecosystems in which forms of life define their "immunity" by devising protective walls and inventing elaborate systems of air conditioning. Inside those networks and spheres are clearly in contradistinction to one another: while networks are good at describing long-distance and unexpected connections stating from local points, stress are useful for describing local, fragile, and complex "atmospheric conditions" — another of Sloterdijk's terms. Networks are good at stressing edges and movements; spheres at highlighting envelopes and wombs.
The entire text is available: here.
If you have not this precious chance to read Bruno Latour (in English) yet, it is an enjoyable occasion to start with this article.
Then, English speakers, in your wish-list: you may be interested in Latour's book An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, an English-version of Enquête sur les modes d'Existence. Une Anthropologie des Modernes, published by La Découverte, last year. The forthcoming English-version will be publishing by Harvard University Press.
