After last year’s focus on Aesthetics of Contingency, the Film and Philosophy seminar will return in the new academic year by zooming in on a more specific form of contingency, which is inspired by a sense of restlessness, disquiet and feelings of disturbance, uncertainty and simmering anxiety in general. Film and philosophy have provided rich engagements with, and provocations and arguments for understanding the self-world relationship through notions of intimacy and uncertainty/disquiet. While disquiet and restlessness are clearly connected to the multiple crises in the world, we propose to relate these crises through a specific focus on the more personal and subjective dimensions of restlessness, through engagements with intimacy, affect, (urban) erotics and related concepts.

We will engage with readings including possibly Fernando Pessoa, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Judith Butler, Jean Luc Nancy, Gilles Deleuze, Norma Alarcón, Lauren Berlant, Stuart Hall, Elizabeth Povinelli, and Lata Mani, and organize one session with the art magazine Extra Extra. The seminar is open to those who register by emailing asca.filmphilosophy@gmail.com. Keeping with an engaged seminar format, for each session, participants are expected to prepare one or two specific questions directly derived from the readings, and/or choose specific passages for discussion.

Dates: 24 November 2022, 16 February 2023, 16 March 2023, 13 April 2023.

Timing: 3 – 6 pm.

Location: BuzzHouse, BG5, Ouderzijds Achterburgwal 233-237.